In this nuanced and deeply moving sequence, David Szalay’s diverse protagonists circumnavigate the world in twelve plane journeys, from London to Madrid, from Dakar to Sao Paulo, to Toronto, to Delhi, to Doha, en route to see lovers and parents, children and siblings, or nobody at all.
Along the way, Szalay deftly depicts the ripple effect that, knowingly or otherwise, a person’s actions have on those around them, and invites us to consider our own place in the vast and delicately balanced network of human relationships that is the world we live in today.
These are the stories of twelve people around the world, each with their own chapter, who are connected in some way. Each has some "turbulence" going on in their lives.
The book begins with an elderly mother who has just spent time with her adult son who lives in London. He has prostate cancer and she was there for him while he went through chemo. On her flight home to Spain, she sits next to a father who is heading home and discovers there has been an accident involving a taxi. The story then picks up with a passenger who was in that taxi who ended up running late for his flight because of the accident. The next story involves the pilot of that flight. And so on.
This is the first book I've read by this author and I liked it. It was a curious concept and it was interesting to see how the author linked one person to the next. It's written in third person perspective with a focus on whose ever story/chapter it was. I like the writing style and it was a quick read.
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