The Confabulist

“I didn’t just kill Harry Houdini. I killed him twice,” asserts Martin Strauss, the protagonist of Galloway’s latest novel. Strauss suffers from a rare and worsening condition that causes him to produce false memories and that will eventually consume his entire mind. The narrative blends the facts of Houdini’s life into a fictional tale that is filled with fascinating tidbits about the escape artist and that also provides an exhilarating story told from the perspective of a truly unreliable narrator. Culp reads the story with a fantastically hypnotic voice that is low and has a slight rasp to it, which can easily pull in listeners and keep them enthralled throughout the book. He also provides a distinct range of voices for the male characters. His female voices are not as successful, but Culp nevertheless manages to distinguish them from the narrative text and the other characters in each scene. A Riverhead hardcover. (May)