The Man from Beyond: A Novel

From the winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award, a debut novel featuring Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.It is April 1922. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle arrives in New York on a spiritualist crusade. To packed houses at Carnegie Hall, he displays photographs of ghosts and spirits; of female mediums bound and gagged, ectoplasmic goo emerging from their bodies. In the newspapers, he defends the powers of the mysterious Margery, one of the most famous mediums of the day. His good friend Harry Houdini is a skeptic, and when Doyle claims Margery's powers are superior to Houdini's, the magician goes on the attack. Into this mix of spirit-chasing celebrities enters Molly Goodman, a young reporter whose job is to cover the heated debate. As she wanders into this world of spooks and spirits, murder and criminal frauds, Molly discovers herself: her true love, her place in the world; even her relationship to her beloved dead brother, Carl.

From Publishers Weekly

Inspired by the complex relationship between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the celebrated author and champion of spiritualism, and Harry Houdini, the famed magician and escape artist, Brownstein's uneven first novel reimagines the consequences of the séance, held in 1922 after a chance meeting on the New Jersey shore, in which the spirit-writing Lady Doyle delivered a message from Houdini's late mother to her skeptical son. While the author does a good job of getting inside the heads of his two historical protagonists with their opposing philosophies, much of the story focuses on the admirable but less interesting 22-year-old Molly Goodman, an intrepid reporter who follows the two great men's activities. In a vivid scene, after Houdini barely escapes from a locked box under the Hudson far down river from where he was supposed to emerge, he realizes that, like Sherlock Holmes after surviving his struggle with Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls, everyone believes he's dead. After this delicious twist, however, the story rushes to a hasty climax involving an insufficiently developed villain. Brownstein's story collection, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Apt. 3W (2002), won the PEN/Hemingway Award. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Reminiscent of Gangemi's Inamorata (2004), this curious and intense first novel dramatizes the well-known debate between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini over the veracity of spiritualism and the existence of an afterlife. Doyle's surprising belief in the abilities of various spiritualists, in particular a woman named Margery, eventually brought about a rift in his friendship with Houdini, who considered all spiritualists to be mere practitioners of theatrical magic. Woven into this historical frame story is the fictional saga of Molly Goodman, a young New York reporter who sets out to interview both men and winds up forced to confront some decidedly personal issues. Brownstein's ability to create both taut suspense and wry comedy gives her novel a double-edged vitality, as her characters are confronted by the inexplicable, whether in the form of a pseudopod peeking out of Margery's skirts or Houdini disappearing, perhaps forever, beneath the murky waters of the Hudson River. This brilliant time capsule offers an enticing portrait of the 1920s and delivers a timely message for today's world. ?A shivery delight. Jennifer BakerCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Boston Herald

"Rollicking…a fast-paced, suspenseful story that offers a great slice of life of New York at the beginning of the 20th century."

Tom McNulty, Mystery News

"The elevated langue, attention to detail, and love of language and history makes this one a keeper. I won’t be surprised if in the years to come this book garners a reputation as a cult classic. A beautifully written book."

Booklist

"This brilliant time capsule offers an enticing portrait of the 1920s and delivers a timely message for today's world. A shivery delight."

Arthur Salm, San Diego Union Tribune Books

"A Houdini/Doyle adventure worthy of a Sherlock Holmes tale…a gentle, affecting, coming-of-age/coming-of-modernism novel…swirling, sensuous, magical, dangerous, dazzling, and, more than anything, alive."

Maureen Howard

"In The Man from Beyond, Gabriel Brownstein has written a truly compelling novel, part Dickensian mystery, part Dos Passos chronicle of New York in the years after the Great War. In rendering the disagreement between Harry Houdini, the escape artist, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the mystery writer, he lays out a brilliant novel of ideas."

Andrea Barrett

"Brownstein has a poet’s gift for the vivid image and for extended metaphor. In his cunning novel, spirit and body escape their shackles, trade places, and dance―while we read on, delighted."

Library Journal

"A well-paced and gripping novel that delves into various forms of discovery―from personal revelations to authenticating frauds."

Jennifer Haigh, New York Times Book Review

"The dramatic and historical material give Brownstein a chance to display his considerable gifts…an appealing experiment in blending the real and the imaginary. Like his magician character, Brownstein puts on a compelling show."

Carlo Wolff, Toronto Globe and Mail

"The Man from Beyond, Gabriel Brownstein’s jaunty and disarming love letter to his native New York City, blends history and fiction in a vivid portrayal of the Jazz Age…Brownstein excels at conjuring a fizzy New York when the media were maturing…Rich, memorable entertainment."

About the Author

Gabriel Brownstein is the author of The Open Heart Club, The Man from Beyond, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Apt. 3W, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award. He teaches at St. John's University in Queens and lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two daughters.

Reviews

News