The Balloonist: A Novel - Softcover

MacDonald Harris

Softcover

ISBN 10: 159020980X ISBN 13: 9781590209806

Publisher: The Overlook Press, 2012

Synopsis

It is July 1897, at the northernmost reach of the inhabited world. A Swedish scientist, an American journalist, and a young, French-speaking adventurer climb into a wicker gondola suspended beneath a huge, red-and-white balloon. The ropes are cut, the balloon rises, and the three begin their voyage: an attempt to become the first people to set foot on the North Pole, and return, borne on the wind. Philip Pullman says in his foreword: "Once I open any of MacDonald Harris’s novels I find it almost impossible not to turn and read on, so delightful is the sensation of a sharp intelligence at work. In The Balloonist , we see all of his qualities at their best."

About this title

About the Author:

Donald Heiney (MacDonald Harris was a pseudonym) was born in 1921 and died in 1993. He is the author of sixteen novels, including The Balloonist and Tenth. In 1982, he received the Award in Literature of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Sciences for the sum of his work.

Review:

“The Balloonist just took me over. I loved it... an immensely entertaining book that is, at the same time, much more, interweaving the scientific, the sensual, and the philosophic. I couldn’t put it down.”
- Michael Malone, Philadelphia Inquirer

“There can no longer be any question whatever that MacDonald Harris is one of our major novelists.”
- Los Angeles Times Book Review

About this edition

• Publisher: The Overlook Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 159020980X
• ISBN 13: 9781590209806
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256