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Reggie Rainbow got his name at the orphanage. He had polio as a child, and seventeen years of using crutches have given him strong hands and nimble fingers. It is this dexterity, perfect for illusions, which first led Mr. Brookes to hire him for the act. Reggie has been a disappearance boy for years now, making a long string of alluring assistants vanish while Mr. Brookes tricks and misdirects the audience.
But in the spring of 1953, the public no longer seem interested in illusionists. Bookings are slim, even in London. When Mr. Brookes gets a new slot at the down-at-the-heel Brighton Grand, Reggie finds himself in a strange town, one full of dark and unexplored corners. And it is the arrival of Pamela Rose, a beautiful new assistant, that truly turns his life upside down. As the Grand's spectacular Coronation show nears, Reggie begins to wonder how much of his own life has been an act - and sets out to find somebody who disappeared from his life long ago.
Masterful and heartfelt, The Disappearance Boy is the tale of one young man coming into adulthood amidst the smoke-and-mirrors backstage world; a story of love, tears, and illusion - of all that stays behind the curtain.
"Starred Review. The author has an unusual gift for showing that ordinary lives are, in their way, extraordinary. You might almost say it's magic." - Booklist
"What a delightfully quirky, eccentric, and lovable character Bartlett (Skin Lane) has given us in this novel's hero, Reggie Rainbow... life-affirming" - Publishers Weekly
This information about The Disappearance Boy was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Neil Bartlett was born in 1958. He is, as well as being an author, a director, writer, and translator for the stage, and a performer. From 1994-2005 he was Artistic Director of the Lyric Hammersmith in London; in 2000 he was awarded an OBE for his services to the arts. He has also been named one of the fifty most important gay cultural figures in Britain by the Independent. Neil's first book, Who Was That Man? was a groundbreaking re-assessment of Oscar Wilde. His previous novels are Ready to Catch Him Should He Fall, The House on Brooke Street (published in the UK as Mr. Clive and Mr. Page and shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize), and Skin Lane (shortlisted for the Costa Award). He lives in Brighton in the United Kingdom.
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