The Spirit Cabinet by Quarrington, 2024 Paul NEUF

After a slow climb out of the strip clubs and flesh pots of Europe, Jurgen and Rudolfo have hit the big time in Las Vegas, headlining a slick and well-oiled magic act. Rudolfo, a true misfit, is content orchestrating the spectacle, but Jurgen, stricken since childhood with the irrational desire to make magic, hungers for more. He finds it in a musty, mysterious collection of old manuscripts and magic cabinetry that once belonged to Houdini. And when he turns into the miracle-working saint of Las Vegas, chaos results. In a narrative that is whimsical, comic and melancholy by turns, Quarrington takes dead aim at the place in the human heart that hopes that doves can bloom from top hats and illusions can come true.

The author of ten novels, Paul Quarrington was also a musician (most recently in the band Porkbelly Futures), an award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, and an acclaimed non-fiction writer.



Paul Quarringtons novel, Galveston, was nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize; King Leary won the CBCs 2008 Canada Reads competition and the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal; and Whale Music was awarded the Governor Generals Literary Award for Fiction. Recently, Porkbelly Futures self-titled second CD has been released to widespread acclaim, and Paul Quarringtons short film adaptation of The Ravine, entitled Pavane, was featured in the Moving Stories Short Film Festival. Paul Quarringtons non-fiction writing includes books on some of his favourite pastimes, such as fishing, hockey, and music. A regular contributor of book reviews, travel columns, and journalism to Canadas national newspapers and magazines, he also taught writing at Humber College and the University of Toronto.



Paul Quarringon passed away in January 2010.