How hardcore was Houdini’s career? Amongst the awesomeness, we tend to forget that he also might have been the first person to fly a plane in Australia.

Now a novel has been written around that event, and apparently it’s pretty good.

A century ago, in March 1910, at Diggers Rest in Victoria, the illusionist and escapologist Harry Houdini was perhaps the first person to fly a plane in Australia. This diversion from his national tour is of central importance to the homage to the exploits and legends of Houdini that is offered by characters in Angelo Loukakis’s latest novel, Houdini’s Flight. Its moral comes as a subtitle: “Sometimes you need to disappear to find yourself.”

Pretty sweet.

Posted by Editor on Friday, June 18th, 2010 at 1:04 pm.