Saving Houdini (20 page)
Authors: Michael Redhill
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A Note to Readers
The lecture Harry Houdini gives in this novel happened on October 19, 1926, in the afternoon, at McGill University in Montreal. For the purposes of this story, I have changed that date to October 20, 1926. The characters of Sol Jacobson and Jacques Pelletier are fictional. Houdini had an English agent named Harry Day with whom he was close, but Day didn’t accompany him on tour. Finally, it is unlikely that Houdini performed the Water Torture Cell in his performance of October 22 owing to the fact that he’d injured his ankle in Albany, New York, earlier in the month.
Two of Houdini’s speeches in this novel are taken from real life: much of his speech to the lecture audience at McGill, and his stage pattern for the Water Torture Cell.
A Note to Magicians
I’m not absolutely sure how to do the Soap Bubble Vanish. My theory about how it
could
be done is reflected in little textual
clues in the various discussions about and depictions of the trick. But I’m not talking.
Still, I’d love to see it.
How about it, magicians?
A Note to Time Travellers
If I’m wrong about any of this, please let me know.
MR
February 2, 2014
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
My thanks first and foremost to Hadley Dyer, who cajoled and jollied me until I wrote a novel for young adults, and I’m grateful to her for her persistence as well as her marvellous editorial eye. At HarperCollins, my gratitude as well to Maria Golikova and Allyson Latta.
Thank you to my long-time friend and agent, Ellen Levine.
Especial thanks to the following, all young readers who volunteered to read an earlier draft of this novel and who responded to it with verve, excitement, and many valuable comments: Karim Alatrash, Adam and Oliver Bock, Abigail Cooper, Max Friedman-Cole, Beatrice Freedman, Gemma Fudge, Katharine Galloway, Frances and Edward Hayward, Nico Heer, Henry Morrison, Michael O’Regan, and Summer Singh. Thanks also to the mums and dads who volunteered their kids and who, in many cases, read the draft themselves and were generous with their comments.
MICHAEL REDHILL
is a fiction writer, playwright, and poet, and is the co-editor and former publisher of the literary magazine
Brick
. His first novel,
Martin Sloane
, a finalist for the Giller Prize, won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the
Books in Canada
First Novel Award. His Novel
Consolation
received the Toronto Book Award, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and was the winner of the keep Toronto Reading "One Book" campaign. A father of two, Michael Redhill lives in Toronto.
Saving Houdini
in his first book for young readers.
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"Some of the best historical fiction about Toronto…Home and muse, the city that has ignited Redhill’s imagination will captivate and haunt the imagination of readers."
THE VANCOUVER SUN
"A beautiful and dreamy stroy, gorgeously written and movingly told.… Redhill’s recreation of old Toronto is so vivid you can almost hear the rumble of carriage wheels on the cobblestones as you turn the pages."
CALGARY HERALD
Saving Houdini
Copyright © 2014 by Michael Redhill.
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EPUB Edition MAY 2014 ISBN 9781443409964
Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
FIRST CANADIAN EDITION
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