Flights

By: Olga Tokarczuk, Jennifer Croft - translator

Narrated by: Julia Whelan

Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

Winner of the Man Booker International Prize

National Book Award Finalist for Translated Literature

A visionary work of fiction by "A writer on the level of W. G. Sebald" (Annie Proulx)

"A magnificent writer." (Svetlana Alexievich, Nobel Prize-winning author of Secondhand Time)

"A beautifully fragmented look at man's longing for permanence.... Ambitious and complex." (Washington Post)

From the incomparably original Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk, Flights interweaves reflections on travel with an in-depth exploration of the human body, broaching life, death, motion, and migration.

Chopin's heart is carried back to Warsaw in secret by his adoring sister. A woman must return to her native Poland in order to poison her terminally ill high school sweetheart, and a young man slowly descends into madness when his wife and child mysteriously vanish during a vacation and just as suddenly reappear. Through these brilliantly imagined characters and stories, interwoven with haunting, playful, and revelatory meditations, Flights explores what it means to be a traveler, a wanderer, a body in motion not only through space but through time. "Where are you from? Where are you coming in from? Where are you going?" we call to the traveler. Enchanting, unsettling, and wholly original, Flights is a master storyteller's answer.

©2018 Olga Tokarczuk; translation Jennifer Croft (P)2018 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"What’s in a novel? This Man Booker International Prize winner reads like a rigorous response to that question in the best, most edifying (and maddening) way…Magnificently translated from the Polish by Jennifer Croft, Flights has the scattered intimate quality of a personal diary, its magic wedded to its singularity. It’s an unexpected, funny journey into that most elusive of places - the human condition." (Entertainment Weekly)

“A revelation … Flights is a witty, imaginative, hard-to-classify work that is in the broadest sense about travel…. In this risky, restlessly mercurial book, Tokarczuk has found a way of turning…philosophy into writing that doesn't just take flight but soars.” (NPR’s “Fresh Air”)

“A beautifully fragmented look at man’s longing for permanence...ambitious and complex.” (Washington Post)

“It’s a busy, beautiful vexation, this novel, a quiver full of fables of pilgrims and pilgrimages, and the reasons - the hidden, the brave, the foolhardy - we venture forth into the world …In Jennifer Croft’s assured translation, each self-enclosed account is tightly conceived and elegantly modulated, the language balletic, unforced.” (The New York Times)

Brilliant in word and voice

I was given this book (and Audi) for Xmas
I had not heard of book or author previously
I enjoyed flights the way I had enjoyed middlemarch or Emma
Read this novel in the moment
Don’t fret about sequence or chronology, just experience in the real time of reading
The narrator allows you to fly with flight of this unique, insightful novel/travelogue

Fabulous book, wrong narrator

Although this unusually structured novel should probably be read rather than listened to, I enjoyed the Audible version anyway. The author is an truly artist with words. Unfortunately, narrator Julia Whelan narrated this work at such a fast clip, I felt I was listening at +1.25 speed even though it was at normal pace. Wrong narrator for the book, Audible,

Difficult to follow

I think this book would be a great read, but unfortunatelly it was difficult to follow as an audiobook.. It wasn't always clear when one story ends, and other starts, especially with the very short ones.

An interesting, well-constructed dry experiment

The narrator was lovely, Tokarczuk is clearly brilliant. There are some fantastic sequences, but overall Flights didn't capture my heart or imagination.

It took a while...

It took a while for me to have any idea of what was going on in this book. Now that I’m finished I’m still not sure. Nonetheless after a while it became increasingly intriguing. To say there is a stream of consciousness going on here is to certainly under state.
Now that I am finished, I plan to listen to this book again with a better understanding of the narrative technique.
The narration was excellent.

Fascinating Collection of Stories

Beautifully written group of stories that intertwine to make a fascinating book. Nicely read by the narrator to give an easy listing experience. Many stories stand alone , while others pop up unexpectedly time and again. I absolutely loved the book and admire the mind that could imagine it.

breathtaking

extraordinary, wonderful translation, beautifully read. I look forward to reading other works but the author.

Wow

As an avid listener of audiobooks - I have to say Julia Whelan’s narration of Olga Tokarczuk’s “Flights” is one the very best performances available on audible. Rarely does a literary work of such power receive such a perfect pairing. 10/10

Fragmented fiction

interesting and insightful, didn't understand the big picture but enjoyed the facts and stories. it was hard to understand the setting sometimes, so I had rewind quite a lot. it was worth it though. the daughters letters and the Russian woman were my favorite stories.

Disappointed

Based in glowing reviews I took this on. There is no coherent story. It was snippets and complaints. A capable writer who wastes your time with undisciplined story-telling.