Margalit Fox originally trained as a cellist and a linguist before pursuing journalism. As a senior writer in The New York Times's celebrated Obituary News Department, she wrote the front-page public sendoffs of some of the leading cultural figures of our age. Winner of the William Saroyan Prize for Literature and author of three previous books, Conan Doyle for the Defense, The Riddle of the Labyrinth, and Talking Hands, Fox lives in Manhattan with her husband, the writer and critic George Robinson.
"Enthralling . . . exceptionally entertaining."-Michael Dirda,
The Washington Post
"Tales of spunky prisoners of war suffering horrifying privation or
outfoxing their sadistic or imbecilic captors are a staple of
military history and the movies. . . . Fact or fiction, few of them
can match the latest entry in the genre. . . . Margalit Fox's The
Confidence Men tells the tale of two Allied officers captured by
the Turks during World War I who escaped their remote prison camp
by pulling an ingenious and elaborate spiritualist con on the
camp's greedy commandant."-The Wall Street Journal
"A wonder; a marvel; a feat of invention and dogged persistence;
and most of all, a testament to the power of the human capacity to
believe. The Confidence Men is a thrilling tale of courage and
friendship and overcoming, not to mention tricks and lies and
magician's cunning, and it will have you cheering the tricksters
every step of the way. The story of their ingenuity offers joy,
solace, and hope."-Liza Mundy, author of Code Girls: The
Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War
II
"The Confidence Men couldn't have come along at a better
time. This story of two unlikely con artists-young British officers
who use a Ouija board to escape from a Turkish prisoner-of-war
camp-is a true delight, guaranteed to lift the spirits of anyone
eager to forget today's realities and lose oneself in a beautifully
written tale of an exciting and deeply moving real-life
caper."-Lynne Olson, author of Madame Fourcade's
Secret War
"Margalit Fox is one of the premier narrative storytellers we have
today, and The Confidence Men is a wonderfully entertaining brew of
history, thrills, and ingenuity, one that highlights the rare
occasion when con artistry is employed for the greater public
good."-Sarah Weinman, author of The Real Lolita
and editor of Unspeakable Acts: True Tales of Crime,
Murder, Deceit, and Obsession
"Fox tells a brisk story filled with colorful background on the
magic, spiritualism, and psychiatry of the day. . . .The brisk true
story of a jailbreak so bizarre it might rate an entry in Ripley's
Believe It or Not!"-Kirkus Reviews
"Fox (Conan Doyle for the Defense), a former obituary
writer for the New York Times, recounts in this marvelous history
how two British army officers in WWI orchestrated 'the most
singular prison break ever recorded.' . . . Fox enriches her
account with intriguing deep dives into the psychology of 'coercive
persuasion,' the mechanics of confidence games, and the history of
spiritualism in the U.S. and England. Readers will be mesmerized by
this rich and rewarding tale."-Publishers Weekly (starred
review)
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