Flights

‘A writer on the level of W. G. Sebald.’
— Annie Proulx, author of The Shipping News

‘A magnificent writer.’
— Svetlana Alexievich, Nobel Prize in Literature laureate 2015

‘One among a very few signal European novelists of the past quarter-century.’
— The Economist

‘Flights could almost be an inventory of the ways narrative can serve a writer short of, and beyond, telling a story. The book’s prose is a lucid medium in which narrative crystals grow to an ideal size, independent structures not disturbing the balance of the whole … Much of the pleasure of reading Flights comes from the essay clusters embedded between sections of narratives ... The cascades of concise interstitial passages are often satisfying riffs on time and space, bodies and language, repetition and uniqueness … Jennifer Croft’s translation is exceptionally adventurous … she can give the impression, not of passing on meanings long after the event, but of being the present at the moment when language reached out to thought.’
— Adam Mars-Jones, London Review of Books

‘An indisputable masterpiece of “controlled psychosis”… Punctuated by maps and figures, the discursive novel is reminiscent of the work of Sebald. The threads ultimately converge in a remarkable way, making this an extraordinary accomplishment.’
— Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

‘In the vein of W. G. Sebald, Flights knits together snippets of fiction, narrative and reflection to meditate on human anatomy and the meaning of travel: this is a delicate, ingenious book that is constantly making new connections.’
— Justine Jordan, Guardian

‘Tokarczuk is one of Europe’s most daring and original writers, and this astonishing performance is her glittering, bravura entry in the literature of ideas. ... A select few novels possess the wonder of music, and this is one of them. No two readers will experience it exactly the same way. Flights is an international, mercurial, and always generous book, to be endlessly revisited. Like a glorious, charmingly impertinent travel companion, it reflects, challenges, and rewards.’
— Eileen Battersby, Los Angeles Review of Books

‘A welcome introduction to a major author and a pleasure for fans of contemporary European literature.’
— Kirkus

‘Tokarczuk reads like a more cerebral W.G. Sebald in this work: Whereas what lingers of Sebald’s works are the emotions he conjures up, what lingers of Tokarczuk are her ideas.’
— Nadia Padilla, The Millions

‘Flights is a humanistic text, one unafraid of sorrow and pain, nor of wisdom and humor. Tokarczuk’s writing is endlessly penetrating and revelatory. Unlike the maps and guidebooks it scorns, it never attempts to reach easy definition or clear meaning, and it’s through this refusal to answer its own questions—about who people are or what the world is like—that it gains its power, its awestriking scope and fractal, refractive insights.’
— Jonathan Wlodarski, Music & Literature

‘An unclassifiable medley of linked fictions and essays, the book occupies no fixed setting or place in time and its travels obey no established itinerary. Given a clear, welcoming translation by Jennifer Croft, its qualities are “fluidity, mobility, illusoriness.”’
— Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal