Turbulence

by David Szalay, Gabra Zackman (Narrator)

Brought to you by Penguin.

**WINNER OF THE EDGE HILL SHORT STORY PRIZE 2019**

Discover the brilliant new short story collection from the Man Booker-shortlisted author of All That Man Is

Twelve people on the move around planet Earth, twelve individual lives, each in turmoil, and each in some way touching the next.

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.

David Szalay 2018 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Contemporary, Travel, Audiobook, Literary Fiction, Book Club

Audiobook

First published December 6, 2018

About the author

David Szalay (born 1974 in Montreal, Quebec) is an English writer.

He was born in Canada, moved to the UK the following year and has lived there ever since. He studied at Oxford University and has written a number of radio dramas for the BBC.

He won the Betty Trask Award for his first novel, London and the South-East, along with the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. Since then he has written two other novels: Innocent (2009) and Spring (2011).

He has also recently been named one of The Telegraph's Top 20 British Writers Under 40 and has also made it onto Granta magazine's 2013 list of the Best of Young British Novelists.

A fourth novel All That Man Is was longlisted for The Man Booker Prize 2016.

He was runner-up of the Booker Prize for All That Man Is, and winner 2025 with Flesh.

Reviews

[Angela M · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up

There’s a lot of turbulence in the lives of the characters in this collection of connected stories, not just the turbulence in the plane ride in the first chapter. The stories are too short for me to have felt any emotional connection to any of the characters, but the emotions and issues touched on here were recognizable and in some cases relatable, if that makes any sense. This is a skillfully written book with each story usually about two main characters, followed by another story of two characters, one of whom was in the previous story. This mechanism goes on taking us from London to Madrid to Dakar to São Paulo to Toronto to Seattle to Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh City to Delhi to Kerala to Qatar to Budapest and full circle back to London and one of the characters from the first story. The titles do not reflect the names of the cities, but the airport codes. This is a cleverly written story collection of how people connect, and how everyone has at least one thing in common, they all carry a burden of some sort. Illness, death, infidelity, prejudice, fear, broken relationships between mother and daughter, husband and wife are some of the things found here. Something a little different and thought provoking.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Scribner through Edelweiss.

[Orsodimondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

NUVOLE IN VIAGGIO



Dodici racconti della stessa lunghezza, sei pagine l’uno, di modo che la lettura radiofonica restasse racchiusa nell’arco di venti minuti (si tratta infatti di un progetto nato su commissione della BBC radio).


Turbolenza

Ogni racconto ha al centro pochi personaggi, generalmente due, uno dei quali sguscia via alla fine e conduce nel racconto seguente. Una ronde che parte da Londra (gli acronimi che intitolano i capitoli indicano gli aeroporti delle varie città raggiunte), prosegue per Madrid, Dakar, San Paolo, Toronto Seattle, Hong Kong, Ho Chi Minh City, Delhi, Kochi, Doha, Budapest, per ritornare al punto di partenza, Londra.
Il giro del mondo viaggiando verso ovest, contro il movimento del sole.
E, alla fine, tutto sommato, un romanzo.


Il percorso

Vero, qui e la il meccanismo diventa un po’ ingabbiante, vero, qui e là si percepisce l’artificio strutturale che va a determinare il racconto, vero, qui e là Szalay spinge un pochino troppo sul pedale dell’emozione.
Ma sono peccati per me non capitali, ho goduto la lettura, mi sono piaciuti questi racconti che mi confermano Szalay scrittore da seguire e del quale leggere possibilmente almeno un romanzo.



Per me il riferimento immediato è stato un film che mi è piaciuto molto e che vinse l’Oscar del miglior film dell’anno, Crash (2006 – che poi di Oscar ne portò a casa anche altri due, quello per la miglior sceneggiatura originale, firmata dal regista Paul Haggis, e quello per il miglior montaggio): mentre leggevo rivedevo quell’immagine, quella circolarità di struttura narrativa, quel passaggio di testimone da una situazione all’altra. Nel film tutto è ambientato a Los Angeles, tra queste pagine invece c’è il mondo intero.


Matt Damon e Thandie Newton in “Crash” il film di Paul Haggis vincitore dell’Oscar per il miglior film dell’anno 2006.

I personaggi, per forza di cose, passano molte ore in volo, con tutti gli inconvenienti che il volare è diventato ormai, la scomodità che regna sovrana, l’isolamento artificiale di quelle lunghe ore, alle quali si aggiungono quelle perse a terra negli aeroporti tra attese check-in code al gate imbarchi trasferimenti.
La turbolenza in volo si percepisce forte quando arriva: mentre Szalay sa ben architettare le turbolenze delle vite dei suoi personaggi, ai quali non risparmia granché.
La precarietà, e per molti versi la fragilità della condizione del viaggiatore aereo si riverbera sulle esistenze umane della gente al centro di queste brevi narrazioni.

Turbolenza

Szalay è bravo a sospendere e regolare l’attesa, la risoluzione di un racconto di rado arriva nel racconto che ha generato la soluzione, di solito bisogna attendere il seguente, che a un certo punto ci lascia sapere cosa sia successo, o solo intuire, o come nel terzo racconto, sospettare, immaginare ma senza certezza.


Come nuvole in viaggio.

[MarilynW · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure how I would like a book had us meeting people for only a short time, before sending us off with another person for a short time, over and over again. But I really liked this book despite not getting to know more about each person and what would happen in their life after our brief meeting. I became so used to the structure of the book that I didn't want it to be over and wondered how I would feel when we'd come to end of our journey.

The author did a good job of circling us to a conclusion that I felt gave me closure, despite there not being a real ending to the story. It continues on, with some likeable characters and some unlikeable characters, giving us just a glimpse into the life of each traveler. I plan to read the author's earlier book, All That is Man because I enjoyed how he dealt with the characters in this book, so much.

Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for this ARC.

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote a review- lost it - not going to worry about.
If I find it - I’ll post it later.

This thin book was totally enjoyable to me- I was so curious of where it was going to go ... I loved the snapshots of peoples lives.

Ha... if I sit next to on the plane -I just might be that annoying passenger who wants to hear all about you.

What stands out as a clear message to me is:
“we don’t need to know a person very long to feel connected to them”.

Brilliantly clever book!!!

[JanB · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

The world really is a village, a concept brought home in this slim volume. There are 12 chapters, each featuring a different person who is traveling on a flight to a different city. Their stories overlap, with each character suffering a crises and somehow connected to a character in the previous chapter. By the end, the reader has traversed the globe and the story comes full circle.

What a brilliant structure for a book and a beautiful example of the interconnectedness of all of humanity. Despite our differences every life has its shares of turbulence.

The stories are so brief there isn’t much character development, but they give us a glimpse into these 12 lives and provides us with food for thought.

[Brandice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I flew through Turbulence in a day, which includes 12 chapters focused on 12 travelers, each flying to a different destination. One story lands while another takes off though there is some overlap between each of them.

Turbulence offers a peek into these 12 lives through very short chapters. I often struggle with enjoying short stories but what I really liked about this book was the progression from one character’s story to the next — It just flowed. I also enjoyed the conclusion.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 3 out of 5]

BDP-LHR: David Szalay, who lives in Budapest, was shortlisted for the London based 2014 Booker prize for his book “All That Man Is” – a collection of short stories, examining the crisis of masculinity, and which the judges felt to be eligible as a novel and fulfilling the “unified and substantive work” criteria.

LHR-LAX: The winner of the Booker Prize that year was “Sellout” – a novel set in Los Angeles and which has been criticised as an attempt at stand up comedy masquerading as a novel.

LAX-TLV: A few months later, the 2017 Man Booker International Prize was won by David Grossman for “A Horse Walks into a Bar” – a novel about a stand-up comedian, giving a routine in portentous circumstances, in a small Israeli costal town.

TLV-DBV: The Man Booker International Prize was won this year by Olga Tokarczuk for “Flights” which among much, much else both good and bad including a vignette on a Croatian Island, was a linked collection of vignettes, with a focus on travel, particularly 21st Century air travel.

DVB-LHR: A little like “Turbulence” by David Szalay.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

A daisy chain of stories that even this non-fan of short stories found entirely absorbing.

The dozen chapters each introduce a character with a link to the previous and while the stories are minimal, the glimpses into humanity are revealing. Starting on a flight from London to Madrid then traveling to numerous cities before coming full circle with the final chapter, Szalay manages to upend your perception of each character as they move from secondary player in a story to the title role in the next. It’s a noteworthy feat and one that made me put down this short book quite a few times to marvel at the author’s craft.

While I was pulled in by the clever structure, it’s the simplicity of the prose and this writer’s imagination that kept me turning the pages. Highly recommended for fans of short stories and anyone who likes sharply written narratives with relevance.

Thanks to Angela’s review and my ARC Fairy (Amy) for the chance to read this author’s work. I’ve put his book, All That Man Is, on my list to read.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Turbulence has proven to be an interesting concept, well executed. While I did not find that every story had identical power, most made me think afterward or caused me to consider something in my own life. This collection of linked stories takes an unusual point for connection: characters either meet while traveling by plane or meet a character from one story who has traveled to the next destination/story.

These men and women are linked as parents and children, as lovers or the spurned, as siblings, as bosses and employees, as friends, etc. The stories relate sadness, fear, hopefulness, tragedy, secrets, much of the gamut of the human condition. Some of the tales really drew me in emotionally and I was sorry these ended so quickly.

Turbulence is a quick read, definitely a one day book unless you spread it out as I did. It moves at the pace of modern life I’d say, with a population on the move across countries and continents, with families and friends widely separated often seeing each other infrequently. The more I think about it, the more I see in this book. Recommended.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this story short and strange in a nutshell. Perhaps someone else will find something different. 2 of 10 stars

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Szalay’s twelve short vignettes circle the globe and feature people that are experiencing some turbulence in their lives. The chapters cite international airport codes, so LGW-MAD covers a flight from London to Madrid. This flight actually does suffer severe turbulence and causes a woman to fall ill while sitting next to a man from Senegal. The next chapter follows the Senegalese man to Dakar where he learns that his son has been hit by a taxi. The narrative baton then moves to the man riding in the taxi on his way to the airport to pilot a plane to Sao Paulo. And so it goes until we are back in London once again. Amazingly, Szalay captures the essence of these people's lives in just a few pages.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

"What she hated about even mild turbulence was the way it ended the illusion of security, the way that it made it impossible to pretend that she was somewhere safe . . ." -- the first passenger, on page 8

Szalay's Turbulence is a sort-of hyperlink story (or reminiscent of Robert Altman's signature ensemble films, like Nashville or Short Cuts) in which the reader jumps from one character to the next, and the initially murky connections sooner or later become clear. Admittedly, this high concept idea or 'hook' - featuring twelve airline passengers (or, in one story, a pilot) traveling to various cities all around the globe, experiencing various forms of emotional 'turbulence' in their disparate lives - made the book sound like a must-read. However, some of the short stories ended too soon and/or just as they got interesting, or were not particularly memorable. Still, at times the book serves as one of those gentle reminders about the stock phrase "be kind - for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is what I think is called a "fix-up" novel, where a string of short stories link together somewhat to form a larger hole. The characters are briefly introduced in relation to a flight they are taking, and another character leaves from that airport and flies to another. Of course by the end there are some connections, but you don't necessarily get a full story from any of the characters, which I ended up feeling was a bit of a shame, because I felt interested in them.

I know the author was a finalist for the National Book Award (USA) but I haven't not read that book. I enjoyed his writing and it sustained me through insomnia last night so win/win.

Thanks to the publisher for approving my request through Edelweiss. The book came out July 16, 2019.

[Paula Mota · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Turbulência” pode ser lido como um conjunto de contos interligados por viagens de avião, ou como um romance em que o protagonista de cada capítulo (identificado pela sigla dos aeroportos de origem e de destino) passa o testemunho àquela que vai ser a personagem principal da história seguinte. Percorremos quatro continentes com curtas passagens pela vida de personagens de várias nacionalidades mas com uma voz muito própria, num livro bastante bem arquitectado, que consegue voltar ao ponto de partida num círculo perfeito.

“And it seemed obvious that just as she had stopped loving her husband like that, she would in time stop loving the doctor in that way too. That was the difference – she knew that now. She wouldn’t love the doctor in the way forever, so she shouldn’t do anything predicated on the idea that she would. And she didn’t intended to. Was that maturity? Was it wisdom?"

[Paul E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting collections of interwoven vignettes. I enjoyed the postulating idea that the human race is all connected. I, unfortunately, felt that the stories themselves were a little too simple. And every story tended to be depressing and or negative (humanity has to have at least one positive within it. right? Or what's the point?).

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

I created a new shelf for this -- vignettes -- because they're really not stories as such with plots. Instead, snapshots. The conceit is that one character from each vignette carries over into the next vignette. Kind of neat, that.

But really, beyond this parlor trick, it's hard to invest in glimpses so brief. And unlike, say, the vignettes in Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street, the writing is not special. In Cisneros' case, the book is rich in figurative language, as much poetry as prose. Szalay is good with dialogue and makes some of his characters interesting, but it's all over too suddenly as 12 vignettes are crammed in 145 pp. (with large font and a full separating page between each).

It almost reads like an "idea book" for future novels. Twelve of them. But the inner flap says this is a novel (a "wondrous, profoundly moving one" at that). I beg to differ. It's more like a lark, a creative writing exercise. Good, quick, easy, downed in an hour, but that's all, folks! A far cry from his wonderful All That Man Is.

[Celeste Corrêa · Rating 4 out of 5]

«O laço essencial que nos une é que todos habitamos este pequeno planeta. Todos respiramos o mesmo ar. Todos nos preocupamos com o futuro dos nossos filhos. E todos somos mortais.»
John Kennedy

Como é fácil, hoje em dia, comprar um bilhete de avião, viajar pelo mundo; quando o faço gosto de sentir a azáfama dos aeroportos, observar os passageiros e a tripulação no interior da aeronave. Quem são? O que fazem ali? Qual a razão da viagem?
E é sobre isso que o autor escreve numa linguagem elegante, sóbria e sem artifícios desnecessários; que na vida das pessoas há turbulência tal como nas viagens aéreas.
São doze capítulos inteligentemente organizados como uma corrida de estafetas na qual cada personagem entrega o bastão à seguinte.

Fasten your seat belt!
A viagem começa em Gatwick e termina em Gatwick.

[JimZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short novel has 12 interconnecting stories in which one protagonist from one story carried on to the next story (in a different country usually). Chapter headings include the initials of two airports (e.g., Chapter 1, LGW (Gatwick) - Madrid, Chapter 9, DEL (Delhi) – COK (Cochin International)).

I usually like interconnected stories, but this one was just OK for me. For one, I really had little sympathy for any of the protagonists. To me, most of the protagonists were shallow. Maybe it’s because I couldn’t build up any sort of affinity given the short chapters. (But I think if the stories were any longer, I might have gotten bored. The stories for the most part were not all that riveting.)

And one of the chapters (stories) was so out-of-whack I was no longer in the story but was wondering what the author was thinking. Do people really act that way? A GR reviewer once wrote in her review something I thought was so good and rang true that I wrote it down: “It pulls me out of the narrative to hear the writer writing.” While reading fiction I want to be immersed in what I am reading…not wondering about why the author had the character do or say such-and-such. The story involved a writer from Toronto visiting her daughter in Seattle who had just given birth…so she goes to the hospital and the daughter tells her that the baby was born blind. And she tells her mother that as soon as the husband (the baby’s father) had learned of that, he left. Simply left. And so the writer takes the baby and is holding it and doesn’t know what to say, and she asks her daughter if she needs anything, and the daughter says “yes” and so she goes to a supermarket (A supermarket? Near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport? Really???) to buy some things for her daughter….and a woman goes up to the writer in the supermarket and says “Are you Marion Mackenzie?) and Marion says yes, and the woman says “you’re wet” (you see, she is in Seattle and in Seattle it rains a lot) and Marion says she knows…she walked ten minutes in the rain to get to the supermarket……… It all quite frankly beggared belief.

Reviews
• https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/bo...
• https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...
• https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book...
• https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-...

[Faith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a series of vignettes linked together by a gimmicky structure. From the blurb I expected the book to reflect how a single event (turbulence on a plane) reverberates through the lives of various characters. That is not this book. Each chapter of the book is basically about two characters and one of those characters travels to another city at the end of the chapter, beginning and ending with London. The characters were clearly etched and the book held my interest, but nothing profound happened. It was definitely not “a wondrous, profoundly moving novel”. The book was just ok for me, but I would be willing to read more by this author. 3.5 stars.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

[Tuti · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved it! superb collection of 12 interconnected short stories, exquisitely written, exploring the modern globalization of family and human relationship in general, with resulting air travels from spain or budapest to see a sick son or father in london, from quatar to budapest or toronto to seattle to see a daughter etc.
a quick, pleasurable, very intelligent, sad & funny read - highly recommended!

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

"So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
'Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go" - John Denver

Turbulence is a group of situational vignettes, each story grabbing the hand of the preceding one through a common character, until at last the book circles round back to the first. The stories span the globe, as one person in each flies to another country to weather bits of the human turbulence we experience in our lives.

I thought this was a lovely book, cleverly written, but not in a flippant way. I liked the chapter titles; they were simply arrival and destination airport codes, showing locations where the characters began and where they went. The book was short; I finished it easily in a couple of hours, and I want to re-read it to uncover the nuances that I may have missed, and also just to absorb the characters a little more fully.

I was taken by how much of life the author, David Szalay, was able to put into such a spare novel. The first and final chapters were even more intricate than I realized as I now think more about them, with the child-parent-child relationships the author ties together. Yes, I definitely will re-read this!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for an ARC of the book in exchange for my honest review.

5 stars

[Robert Sheard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This very brief novel–a novella really–is just wonderful. In the twelve chapters, each one titled using the airport codes for a flight one of the characters has made, we meet a series of characters who are all connected in some way. Some of the connections are filial, some merely accidental, but the whole novel demonstrates how all of us are interconnected in some way. It's a very tightly-structured, fascinating series of mini-portraits that are at times surprising, and at other times heart-breaking, and I think it's remarkable. I didn't know Szalay before reading this novel, but I definitely want to pick up some of his earlier works now.

[Magdalena Miękińska (getbooky) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

[Nood-Lesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Till I come

Ogni capitolo è contraddistinto da una sigla
LGW – MAD
GRU – YYZ
DEL – COK
Non l’ho capito subito, ma le sigle sono quelle degli aeroporti da cui decollano e atterrano i voli. La turbolenza metereologica è solo nel primo volo Londra/Madrid. Le altre saranno turbolenze umane, sotto forma di violenze, malattie, morte, matrimoni (in ordine di gravità). I personaggi passano il testimone narrativo una volta atterrati, il volo successivo avrà un viaggiatore diverso. I primi due capitoli, quelli in cui non si ha ancora ben chiaro cosa leghi i personaggi, sono forse i migliori.
Si entra nella vita privata di un gruppo d’estranei, nei loro problemi, nei loro tradimenti, tutto ciò che a terra cammina, striscia, corre, sobbalza, qui vola e infetta come ha fatto il covid che usava gi esseri umani come vettori.
Si viene infettati dalla debolezza di chi ha paura di volare, dalla doppiezza di chi conduce due vite, dalla solitudine di chi cerca compagnia in un sito d’incontri. Si vola in Europa, Asia, America e poi a sorpresa ci si ritrova a Getwick che era stato il primo aeroporto di partenza.
I capitoli sono brevi, le tematiche molteplici. Superata la prima turbolenza e attivato il pilota automatico, decolli e atterraggi saranno solo un espediente narrativo.

La dedica iniziale è questa
a T & B
A me ha fatto pensare a
https://youtu.be/XK-LlnnQ71I?si=x1gMw...

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

What she hated about even mild turbulence was the way it ended the illusion of security, the way that it made it impossible to pretend that she was somewhere safe. She managed, thanks to the vodka, more or less to ignore the first wobble. The next was less easy to ignore, and the one after that was violent enough to throw her neighbour's Coke into his lap. And then the pilot's voice, suddenly there again, and saying, in a tone of terrifying seriousness, “Cabin crew, take your seats.”

I read David Szalay's Man Booker-nominated All That Man Is (a collection of tenuously linked short stories that didn't quite qualify as a novel in my mind), and his latest, Turbulence, is sort of the same: consisting of very brief sketches of (mostly) unrelated character's lives, the actions of each ripple into the next story (each set in a different country), and on and on, like a shockwave of turbulence jolting its way through the entirety of the human narrative. Each chapter may be brief, but Szalay captures a moment of something very true and real in each; the line-by-line writing is precise and flawless. As characters fly around the world, Szalay believably switches up settings and cultures; but as different as these societies are, people are people everywhere. On the one hand, this message is demonstrated well, and on the other, sometimes Szalay's “message” became too overt for me. Overall: a brief read that packs a punch. (Note: I read an ARC and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.)

Despite the book eventually travelling all around the world, there is one British family that ties it all together – and their diaspora says something interesting about modern life. In the opening piece (and opening quote), an elderly woman is flying home to Madrid after spending some weeks with her middle-age son as he went through radiation treatments for prostate cancer. Eventually, we meet this man's ex-wife – who initially plays a minor role in a chapter set in Qatar – as she visits her adult daughter in Budapest, and in the final chapter, this daughter visits her father at his home in London. Nothing is explained about why this family lives so far apart from one another, but the ways in which they're shown to live their lives speaks volumes about the types of people they are. And if, by the end, the reader doesn't get Szalay's point about how interconnected we all are, he shows the daughter reading the framed JFK quote that her father has always had in his flat:

For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.

Those particular concerns – the welfare of our children and our own mortality – recur throughout the stories, so it felt a little heavy-handed to me to have this stated so pointedly near the end of the book. I also didn't believe the following, an interaction between two lower-classed sisters in India after one discovers the other's husband has hit her:

She said, leaning towards her sister so that their noses were almost touching, “There's a phrase for this now. It's 'toxic masculinity'.” She said the words in English, and Nalini didn't understand them, so she tried to find a Malayalam equivalent. “That's what they call it now. And you can't just take it,” she said. “You can't. Okay?”

I did like that Ursula (the ex-wife of the British man, above) enjoys showing off her liberal bona-fides to her friends by talking about the fact that her daughter was dating a Syrian refugee (especially ironic in light of the ways that she treats her servants at home in the emirate), and I liked the turn that her attitude took when she discovered that her daughter intended to marry the man:

Ursula wanted to ask her daughter how she could be sure he didn't have a family back in Syria – a wife, kids, whatever. There was no way of knowing. Ursula had thought about it just that morning on the plane from Doha. There used to be a time when flights from the Gulf to Europe flew over Iraq and Syria – that was the shortest way – only now they had to avoid the sky over those places and fly over Iran and Turkey instead. She had watched, on the seatback screen, her own flight do just that this morning, divert around Syria and Iraq, and she had thought of Moussa, of course, and of his unknown life down there, in that secret place – a place so secret it wasn't even possible to fly over it and look at it from ten thousand metres up. What had he left behind there? What ties did he still have? Impossible to say.

As much as I liked the subtle shift in Ursula's attitude when she learns her daughter has become more serious about her Syrian boyfriend, I don't know if I believed that the girl's father, upon hearing the news of the impending nuptials, would blurt out, “He's not some nutcase is he? ...some Islamic nutter?” (Although we are told that he's frightened of his cancer and not quite himself.) So overall: Where Szalay was showing me people living incredibly well-drawn scenes from their lives, I totally got his message about the interconnectedness of the human family – and especially in these days of rapid intercontinental travel. But I didn't need the message stated overtly, and that detracted from my overall enjoyment. Still a four star read.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5) These 12 linked short stories, commissioned for BBC Radio 4, focus on travel and interconnectedness. Each is headed by a shorthand route from one airport to another, and at the destination we set out with a new main character who has crossed paths with the previous one. For instance, in “YYZ – SEA” the writer Marion Mackenzie has to cancel a scheduled interview when her daughter Annie goes into labor. There’s bad news about the baby, and when Marion steps away from the hospital to get Annie a few necessaries from a supermarket and is approached by a pair of kind fans, one of whom teaches Marion’s work back in Hong Kong, she’s overcome at the moment of grace-filled connection. In the next story we journey back to Hong Kong with the teacher, Jackie, and enter into her dilemma over whether to stay with her husband or leave him for the doctor she’s been having an affair with.

As he ushers readers around the world, Szalay invites us to marvel at how quickly life changes and how – improbable as it may seem – we can have a real impact on people we may only meet once. There’s a strong contrast between impersonal and intimate spaces: airplane cabins and hotel rooms versus the private places where relationships start or end. The title applies to the characters’ tumultuous lives as much as to the flight conditions. They experience illness, infidelity, domestic violence, homophobia and more, but they don’t stay mired in their situations; there’s always a sense of motion and possibility, that things will change one way or another.

My favorite story was “DOH – BUD,” in which Ursula goes to visit her daughter Miri and gains a new appreciation for Miri’s fiancé, Moussa, a Syrian refugee. I also liked how the book goes full circle, with the family from the final story overlapping with that of the first. Though a few of the individual stories are forgettable, I enjoyed this more than Szalay’s Booker-shortlisted All that Man Is, another globe-trotting set of linked stories.

A favorite line: “In fact it was hard to understand quite what an insignificant speck this aeroplane was, in terms of the size of the ocean it was flying over, in terms of the quantity of emptiness which surrounded it on all sides.”

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[The Artisan Geek · Rating 5 out of 5]

14/5/19
My review is up on my Youtube channel: Turbulence Review


1/5/19
Loved it!! Such an beautiful display of humanity, how we in emotional situations are most vulnerable and open to others! Such a great read! This is going on my crushing pile of books to review on my Youtube channel!! :D

30/4/19
A sincere thank you to Scribner for sending over this book! I know I say this all the time, but I LOVE short stories!!! :D

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[Come Musica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ho ascoltato dal vivo David Szalay a Pordenone Legge 2019 e ho così scoperto che l'autore ha scritto questo libro perché la BBC gli aveva commissionato delle storie da leggere in radio dalla durata di 20 minuti ciascuna. Nello scriverle, Szalay non solo ha cercato di stare nelle 2000 battute per storia, ma anche di far sì che poi andassero ad essere parte di un unico libro, perché non cadessero nel dimenticatoio. In questi dodici capitoli, ogni frase è essenziale e indispensabile e ha il preciso compito di lasciare una suggestione, un'impressione.

Ogni racconto è identificato da due gruppi di tre lettere che individuano rispettivamente l'areoporto di partenza e quello di arrivo.
C'è molta turbolenza nella vita dei personaggi, in questa raccolta di storie connesse, che non si riduce solo alla turbolenza nella corsa in aereo nel primo capitolo.
In questo libro abilmente scritto, Szalay fa ruotare di solito ogni storia attorno a due personaggi principali, seguita da un'altra storia di due personaggi, uno dei quali era nella storia precedente. In questo modo, il lettore viaggia insieme a tutti i protagonisti: parte da Londra per muoversi verso Madrid, Dakar, San Paolo, Toronto, Seattle, Hong Kong, Ho Chi Minh City, Delhi, Kerala, Qatar, Budapest, per fare ritorno infine a Londra, in cui si ritorva nell'ultima storia uno dei personaggi della prima.
Il messaggio che Szalay vuol far passare, attraverso questi racconti concatenati, lo si trova nel nono capitolo: "Doveva farle capire che era importante non accettare sempre le cose come se fossero inevitabili. Che era importante agire, prendere posizione. A farla infuriare più di tutto era la passività."
In fondo, siamo viandanti che hanno la consistenza dell'aria, in continua turbolenza, in continuo movimento. "Nel cielo si muovevano le nuvole, il sole andava e veniva, e quando furono all'angolo il vento fece volare i fiori da tutti gli alberi della via."

[Annette · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad, it held my attention and is nicely written but the whole thing is slight. Not even really a collection of short stories though the connections are skilfully made, each story is too short and the whole isn't saying much other than lots of people lots of connections.

Another offering by an author who is very talented but has probably been pushed into publication with 'something' to keep their publisher happy.

[SCARABOOKS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dodici racconti in dodici tappe di un giro del mondo. Come lo splendido “Tutto quello che è un uomo”, una brevissima narrazione ad incastri. Un Lego di racconti che si si incontrano e si incatenano lungo un filo comune, come in una staffetta. Un romanzo-mosaico, al pari dell’altro; bello ed originale anche questo.

La cosa narrativamente migliore, all’inizio di ogni racconto, è la sensazione di spaesamento. Chi parla adesso? In quale parte del mondo siamo? E, solo dopo, le domanda di ogni lettura: che succede e che significa?
Poi affiorano i collegamenti, si illumina il filo rosso che lega i racconti. Szalay ha una grande misura narrativa, una grande abilità affabulatoria. Si legge in due ore, ma è una miniera di spunti e riflessioni sul tempo in cui viviamo. Pochi scrittori stanno dentro la nostra modernità come lui.
Per avere qualche idea in più di quel intendo qui si trova qualcosa:
https://scarabooks.blogspot.com/2019/...