Magic of memory: Steven Galloway conjures Houdini in new novel

Steven Galloway explores the fickle nature of memory in The Confabulist, his novel about one of the world’s greatest magicians, Harry Houdini.

But like his 2008 critical and commercial success, The Cellist of Sarajevo — a fictionalised account of real-life cellist Vedran Smailovic who was incensed when Galloway used the account of him performing on the streets of Sarajevo during the city’s siege — the new novel is no biography.