New Releases by Steven Galloway

Was ist wahr, und was ist Illusion? Erzählern ist zuweilen nicht zu trauen. Besonders wenn sie, wie Martin Strauss, an einer seltenen neurologischen Krankheit leiden, an der sogenannten Konfabulation: Konfabulierende sind Menschen, die objektiv falsche Dinge erzählen, in der festen Überzeugung, dass sie wirklich genau so geschehen sind. Es sind Menschen, denen die Erinnerung ein ums andere Mal böse Streiche spielt. Und die, ohne es selbst zu merken, sich immer weniger darauf verlassen können, genau zu wissen, was wahr ist und was falsch ... Als Martin Strauss von seinem Arzt erfährt, dass er an fortschreitenden und unheilbaren Erinnerungsstörungen leidet, versucht er sein Leben zu rekapitulieren, noch einmal festzuhalten, wie es wirklich war. Und es ist ein wahrhaft turbulentes Leben, auf das er zurückzublicken meint – ein Leben an der Seite des großen, weltbekannten Magiers und Entfesselungskünstlers Houdini. Harry Houdini, dem Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts der sagenhafte Aufstieg von kleinen Hinterzimmerauftritten auf die ganz großen Bühnen der Welt gelang. Der von Arthur Conan Doyle bewundert wurde, der in das Visier von Scotland Yard geriet, dem Verbindungen zu der russischen Zarenfamilie nachgesagt wurden. Martin Strauss hat Aufstieg und Fall Harry Houdinis begleitet, glaubt er zumindest. Und er hat ihn getötet – glaubt er zumindest – und musste daraufhin sein ganzes bisheriges Glück und Leben aufgeben. Doch was ist wahr an Martin Strauss‘ Erinnerungen, und was ist Illusion?

From the author of The Cellist of Sarajevo, an exciting new novel that uses the life and sudden death of Harry Houdini to weave a tale of magic, intrigue, and illusion. What is real and what is an illusion? Can you trust your memory to provide an accurate record of what has happened in your life? The Confabulist is a clever , entertaining, and suspenseful narrative that weaves together the rise and fall of world-famous Harry Houdini with the surprising story of Martin Strauss, an unknown man whose fate seems forever tied to the magician’s in a way that will ultimately startle and amaze. It is at once a vivid portrait of an alluring, late-nineteenth/early-twentieth-century world; a front-row seat to a world-class magic show; and an unexpected love story. In the end, the book is a kind of magic trick in itself: there is much more to Martin than meets the eye. Historically rich and ingeniously told, this is a novel about magic and memory, truth and illusion, and the ways that love, hope, grief, and imagination can—for better or for worse—alter what we perceive and believe.

The acclaimed author of Finnie Walsh turns from small-town hockey to the extraordinary intrigues of circus life during the heyday of the Big Top through the story of Salvo Ursari, undisputed master of the high wire. As the novel opens, it is the summer of 1976. Salvo is 66 years old and has decided he can never retire. Already famous thanks to his days in an American circus, he has made a living in recent times performing solo walks of extraordinary difficulty. And so he finds himself attempting to accomplish the most difficult feat of his career: to walk a wire strung between the twin towers of the World Trade Center, 1350 feet from the ground. Transylvania in 1919 is a place of poverty and persecution for the Rom people. Salvo follows his father to a village church, where the senior Ursari -- the only man who volunteers for the task -- is to climb the steeple to replace a large iron crucifix that had been removed for safe-keeping during the war. He restores the cross, but it is not properly attached and as they are leaving, it falls, killing a priest. When the villagers exact their revenge, Salvo’s parents are killed and he is separated from his brother and sister. Thus begins nearly a lifetime of being forced to flee from suspicion and misfortune that takes the reader from Europe to the US to British Columbia’s Fraser Valley and back to Manhattan. Ascension combines powerful storytelling -- including stories of the Romany people, poverty-stricken but resourceful, and rich in legend -- with great surprise and originality; Steven Galloway makes it clear why he is one of the hottest young writers in Canada today. Excerpt from Ascension “Once a newspaper man had asked him what it felt like to walk high above the crowd, with death looming beneath you and success a long way off on the other platform. Salvo had told the man that it was like being a bird, an eagle, but he knew that wasn’t true at all. He was a man, nothing more. Still, he was a man who dared do things other men watched and admired and were jealous of. He walked for these people as much as for anyone. But today he was walking only for himself. That was the difference with these solo walks. When he was among them, he was one of them, but here he is timeless, one man on a wire far above it all, in a separate place. He was not free, but he was as free as he would ever be.”

Steven Galloway''s first novel, an incredible coming of age story, now revised and available in trade paperback from Vintage Canada. Finnie Walsh is a captivating, Irving-esque story of family, friendship, redemption, and legend. Paul Woodward lives in Portsmouth, a quiet northern mill-town. Born the day Paul Henderson planted the puck between the pipes against the Soviet Union to win the 1972 Super Series, Paul has no choice about playing hockey. His best friend Finnie Walsh is stinking rich. He is also fellow hockey fanatic and the only good kid in a long line of delinquent brothers. Paul''s father works the nightshift at the local mill, owned by Finnie''s father. One fateful day the boys noisily prepare for their first season of hockey in the Woodward driveway, keeping Paul''s father awake when he should be sleeping. This triggers a chain of world-altering events. Galloway proves that childhood innocence, while not exactly bliss, can be amusing and more than mildly instructional. This is the book John Irving would have written if he understood hockey as well as wrestling. Finnie Walsh, like the fabled games before NHL expansion, is a story about greatness and legend. But it''s also a heartsong to family, friendship, and atonement.

Ein Musiker trotzt dem Irrsinn des Bürgerkriegs in Sarajevo: Inmitten der Ruinen, dem feindlichen Beschuss ausgesetzt, spielt er auf seinem Cello das Adagio von Albinoni, zweiundzwanzig Tage lang ... Zu Beginn der neunziger Jahre wird das belagerte Sarajevo aus den Bergen ringsum Tag und Nacht beschossen. Die Bürger der Stadt leben in Angst, Nahrung und Wasser werden knapp. Eines Tages muss ein Mann von seinem Fenster aus mit ansehen, wie eine Mörsergranate zweiundzwanzig Menschen tötet, die vor der Bäckerei unten Schlange stehen. Der Mann ist Cellist, und er trifft eine unglaublich mutige Entscheidung: Jeden Tag um vier Uhr nachmittags zieht er seinen Frack an, setzt sich mit seinem Cello auf die Geröllhalden vor seinem Haus und spielt das Adagio in G-Dur von Albinoni. Zweiundzwanzig Tage lang, zum Gedenken an die Toten. Die Bürger von Sarajevo hören ihm zu, darunter eine Scharfschützin, ein verängstigter Familienvater und ein einsamer, alter Mann. Sie alle sind verzweifelt, träumen vom alten oder einem neuen Sarajevo, wollen dem Hass und der Furcht entfliehen. Und sie alle werden vom Spiel des Cellisten berührt. Ein bewegender Roman, der auf einer wahren Begebenheit beruht und der inmitten von Krieg und Zerstörung Zeichen von Hoffnung und Menschlichkeit entdeckt.

Sarajevo assiégée. Un obus fauche vingt-deux victimes. En leur hommage, un violoncelliste virtuose va pendant vingt-deux jours, à 16 heures précises, jouer l''Adagio dAlbinoni là où la bombe a frappé. A partir de cette histoire authentique qui commença le 27 mai 1992 et détermina l''acte de résistance de Vedran Smailovic, Steven Galloway a élaboré un roman sur le courage et la peur, sur la vie menacée à chaque coin de rue, sur la mort tombée du ciel. Outre le musicien, trois autres personnages: Flèche, une jeune femme devenue sniper. Kenan, qui tous les quatre jours traverse la ville afin de chercher de l''eau potable. Le boulanger, Dragan, qui lui aussi attend tous les matins le coup de feu qui peut l''abattre. Pendant leurs allées et venues, sous la menace des balles, chacun devra faire face à ses craintes les plus enfouies en s''accrochant au souvenir de Sarajevo en paix.

Fra 1992 til 1996 opplever Sarajevo den lengste beleiring av noen by i moderne tid. I slutten av mai 1992 blir 22 mennesker drept av en granat på et torg. Cellisten i Sarajevos symfoniorkester var vitne til at venner og kjente ble sprengt i filler. Etter denne opplevelsen bestemmer han seg for å ta med celloen til stedet der granaten hadde slått ned. I 22 dager spiller han Adagio av Albinoni. Dette er utgangspunktet for denne fortellingen om hvordan hverdagsmennesker gjør sitt beste for å overleve under umenneskelige forhold.

While a cellist plays at the site of a mortar attack to commemorate the deaths of twenty-two friends and neighbors, two other men set out in search of bread and water to keep themselves alive, and a woman sniper secretly protects the life of the cellist as her army becomes increasingly threatening.

"Una història apassionant sobre el setge de Sarajevo." J. M. Coetzee En una cruïlla de carrers de Sarajevo, Kenan agafa forces per emprendre la seva odissea setmanal a través de la ciutat a la recerca d''aigua per a la seva família. Mentrestant, Dragan, un home a qui Kenan no coneix, intenta arribar al lloc on es trafica amb el menjar i, alhora, amb les esperances dels supervivents. Ambdós estan paralitzats per la por, sense saber a quin punt dels ponts i els carrers anirà a parar la propera bala, sense voler ni recordar com era la vida abans que les divisions es multipliquessin a la seva ciutat. Penjada en un terrat de la ciutat, vigilant i àgil, trobem també la Fletxa, una franctiradora experta amb una missió quasi impossible: protegir el violoncel·lista dels atacs d''un altre franctirador ocult que pretén matar-lo mentre interpreta el seu homenatge a les víctimes.

Un día, un obús cae sobre la cola que hay formada frente a una panadería y mata a veintidós personas, mientras el violonchelista lo ve todo desde su piso. Se hace la promesa de sentarse en el cráter que ha dejado el mortero y tocar el Adagio de Albinoni una vez al día, y un día por cada una de las víctimas. El Adagio había sidorecompuesto a partir de un fragmento de la última partitura que sobrevivió al bombardeo de la biblioteca de música de Dresden, pero el hecho de que haya sido transformado por otro compositor en algo nuevo y valioso insufla esperanza al violonchelista. Mientras tanto, Kenan se arma de valor para emprender su caminata semanal por las peligrosas calles en busca de agua para su familia, que vive en el otro extremo de la ciudad.Y Dragan, un hombre al que Kenan no conoce, intenta llegar al lugar donde trafica con comida y sabe que conseguirá protección. Ambos estánprácticamente paralizados por el miedo, sin saber a qué punto de los puentes y las calles que deben cruzar irá a parar la próxima bala, sin querer hablar con sus antiguos amigos de cómo era la vida antes de que las divisiones se multiplicasenen su ciudad.También está Flecha, el pseudónimo de una diestra francotiradora a quien se le pide proteger al violonchelista de otro francotirador oculto que tiene intención de matarle mientras toca su homenaje a las víctimas. En esta hermosa e inolvidable novela, Steven Galloway ha efectuado un extraordinario e imaginativo salto para dar vida a una historia que habla poderosamente de la dignidad y la peligrosidad del espíritu humano cuando se encuentra bajo una coacción extrema.

"A novel of great intensity and power. The Cellist of Sarajevo explores how war can change one''s definition of humanity, how music affects our emotional endurance, and how a romance with the rituals of daily life can itself be a form of resistance."--BOOK JACKET.

Na een aanslag in Serajevo in 1992 besluit een cellist op de plaats van de inslag elke dag te gaan musiceren.

While a cellist plays at the site of a mortar attack to commemorate the deaths of twenty-two friends and neighbors, two other men set out in search of bread and water to keep themselves alive, and a woman sniper secretly protects the life of the cellist as her army becomes increasingly threatening.

"Finnie Walsh will forever remain in my daily thoughts, not only because of the shocking circumstances of his absurd demise, but because he managed to misunderstand what was truly important even though he was right about almost everything else." So begins Steven Galloway’s critically acclaimed first novel. The story is told by Paul Woodward, Finnie''s best friend and the only good kid in a long line of delinquents. Hockey one of the few things they have in common: Finnie’s family is rich and snobbish, while Paul’s father works the night shift at the local mill owned by Finnie’s father. One fateful day, the boys noisily play hockey in the Woodwards’ driveway, keeping Paul''s father awake. This seemingly innocent activity triggers a shattering chain of events. Finnie Walsh has been compared to the work of John Irving, but Galloway’s voice, most particularly his unforgettable portrait of the title character, is uniquely his own.