During Harry Houdini’s 1910 visit, the famous escapologist claimed to be the first person to achieve powered, controlled flight in Australia. In Houdini’s Flight, Angelo Loukakis uses these bare details as the backdrop for a modern tale about a more modest achiever, Terry Voulos. A second-generation Greek-Australian, Terry confronts, almost in slow motion, a personal crisis that initially seems caused by his own stuttering approach to life. Whereas Houdini descends into water to release himself from heavy chains, Terry must break free from his own limitations to revitalise his life, his attitudes, his marriage to Jenny and his bond with his son, Ricky.

Terry is a bus driver and a novice magician. His dream of becoming a professional magician reflects his brooding dissatisfaction with himself – he wants to be somebody, especially, it seems, to impress Ricky. After he stages a successful magic show for an elderly audience at the Banjo Paterson Memorial Home – ‘he had pulled off six tricks in a row without muffing any of them’ – Terry is buttonholed by a dishevelled old-timer called Hal, who, mysteriously, doesn’t even live in the home. Soon Terry is visiting Hal’s squat to learn magic and to listen to his tales about Houdini.