Before escape artist Harry Houdini died, he vowed he would find a way to speak to his beloved wife, Bess, from beyond the grave using a coded message known only to the two of them. But when a widowed Bess begins seeing this code in seemingly impossible places, it becomes clear that Harry has an urgent message to convey. Unlocking the puzzle will set Bess on a course back through the pair's extraordinary romance, which swept the illusionist and his bride from the beaches of Coney Island, to the palaces of Budapest, to the back lots of Hollywood. When the mystery finally leads Bess to the doorstep of a mysterious young photographer, she realizes that her husband's magic may have been more than just illusion.

This book will provide a space for new and emergent research in environmental migration, particularly in the context of a world beginning to emerge from the grip of a debilitating public health crisis that kept many firmly rooted in place while displacing others internationally. With famines, vast wildfires, droughts, and record heatwaves uprooting human settlements internationally, research on migration in the face of emerging risks is all the more urgent.  As Balsari, Dresser, & Leaning  point out, “the wall-building, xenophobic, and insular� platforms of some global powers in their immigration and asylum policies, and the ever-increasing stresses placed on the natural world that continue to make sites of human settlement less and less hospitable, make research on this topic both very timely and much needed. This book will include numerous case studies, historical analyses, projections, models, and recommendations for both policy and future research directions. Contributions are drawn from academics and practitioners in this fertile interdisciplinary field of academic inquiry, and each one focuses on the intersection of population and environment studies, history, geography, law, diaspora studies, economics, public health, and sociology. This book is composed of five clear sections.  The introductory section includes one chapter that presents an overview of the current landscape, the scope and objectives of the book, as well as its specific approach and the various themes. The concluding section is composed of one chapter that presents a global map of recent innovations drawing together some of the core themes discussed throughout the book. The concluding chapter synthesizes the challenges and opportunities presented, and the possible future directions that researchers, practitioners, and regulators could and should move towards. 

Co-winner of the 2012 COAL HILL REVIEW Chapbook Contest. These poems serve as witness to the intrusive, residual displacement women experience as their husbands deploy. For brief moments, we learn about the battles that take form inside the bodies of those left at home.