A New York Times Notable Book "An elegant, nonlinear reflection on how flying on a commercial airliner-even while painfully folded into a seat in coach-can lift the soul." -The New York Times Book Review
In the twenty-first century, airplane flight-once a remarkable feat of human ingenuity-has been relegated to the realm of the mundane. In this mesmerizing reflection on flying, Mark Vanhoenacker, a 747 pilot who left academia and a career in the business world to pursue his childhood dream of flying, helps us to reimagine what we-as pilots and as passengers-are actually doing when we enter the world between departure and discovery.
In a seamless fusion of history, politics, geography, meteorology, ecology, family, and physics, Vanhoenacker vaults across geographical and cultural boundaries; above mountains, oceans, and deserts; through snow, wind, and rain, renewing a simultaneously humbling and almost superhuman activity and reawakening our capacity to be amazed.
Industry Reviews
A New York Times Notable Book
A Best Book of the Year
San Francisco Chronicle - The Economist - GQ - Kirkus Reviews "Superb. . . . An elegant, nonlinear reflection on how flying on a commercial airliner--even while painfully folded into a seat in coach--can lift the soul." --The New York Times Book Review
"A beautifully observed collection of details, scenes, emotions and facts from the world above the world." --The Economist
"Remarkable. . . . [Skyfaring] lifts the thoughts and spirits." --James Fallows, The Atlantic
"Marvelously literate. . . . Vanhoenacker . . . can put one in mind of Henry James. . . . A big-hearted book." --The New York Times
"Gorgeous and captivating. . . . Skyfaring artfully demystifies the fascinating technical aspects of commercial flight while delivering poetic insights straight from the cockpit." --San Francisco Chronicle
"Masterly, beautifully written." --The Times Literary Supplement
"[Vanhoenacker is] an exceptionally lucid and philosophically minded writer." --The Wall Street Journal
"Not since Antoine de Saint-Exup�ry's classic Vol de Nuit . . . has there been such a fantastic book about flying. . . . Skyfaring takes the genre to a whole new level." --Cond� Nast Traveller
"Imagine Henry David Thoreau reflecting on the wonders of the lights of Oman as seen from the cockpit of a 747, and you begin to have something of the fresh magic of this exceptional debut." --Pico Iyer, author of The Man Within My Head
"Riveting. . . . Vanhoenacker paints humanity seen from the aviator's perch, woven together with a fascinating layman's account of the mechanics of flight. . . . [He] invokes philosophers, music, history, and his own past and family to convey the sense of discovery and disorientation that he feels crisscrossing the globe." --The Times (London)
"A love letter to flight. . . . Vanhoenacker slips easily between poetic meditation into the nature of travel and technical explanations of the mechanisms of the 747, and I found all of it fascinating. It is a delight to encounter someone so unabashedly enamored of the romance of his profession." --Emily St. John Mandel, The Millions
"[A] revelatory work of observation, thought, and expression." --James Fallows, author of China Airborne
"Flying, a century after Kitty Hawk, can seem both scary and banal, the realm of underwear bombers and miniature mouthwashes, but Vanhoenacker recovers its metaphysics." --The New Yorker
"Vanhoenacker's passionate and beautifully written book will remind even the most jaded traveller of the wonder of flight." --The Sunday Times (UK)
"A masterpiece of time, distance, palm trees, frosty mornings, lofty ambition and self-effacing charm." --Monocle
"A 747 pilot with a poetic streak. . . . The writing makes flying feel as amazing at it really is." --Wired.com
"A description of what it's like to fly by a commercial pilot who is also a master prose stylist and a deeply sensitive human being. . . . This couldn't be more highly recommended." --Alain de Botton, author of How Proust Can Change Your Life
"Vanhoenacker makes [flying] wondrous again." --London Evening Standard
"[Skyfaring] never loses sight of how beautiful it is to soar above the clouds. . . . [Vanhoenacker's] writing is fluid and elegant." --The New Statesman (UK)
"An author of real distinction with a genuinely poetic sensibility as well as a memorable turn of phrase." --The Spectator
"Vanhoenacker makes [flying] wondrous again." --London Evening Standard
"A skilful meditation on the glories of traversing the earth at the helm of mankind's greatest technological achievement. . . . You'll quickly find yourself in thrall to Vanhoenacker's marvellous prose." --GQ (UK)
"Through prose as passionate and erudite as it is informative, [Vanhoenacker] describes not merely the mechanical workings of flight, but will rekindle, in those who care to listen, a lost appreciation for the marvel of global air travel." --Patrick Smith, author of Cockpit Confidential
