The Book of Flying - Softcover

Miller, Keith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1594480664 ISBN 13: 9781594480669

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2005

Synopsis

A gorgeously poetic tale of fantasy for adults, The Book of Flying is a beautiful modern fable and daring new take on the quest narrative.

In Keith Miller's debut novel, our hero is Pico, a poet and librarian who is and forbidden to pursue the girl of his dreams - for she has wings, and Pico does not. When he discovers an ancient letter in his library telling of the mythical Morning Town where the flightless may gain their wings, he sets off on a quest. It's a magical journey and coming-of-age story in which he meets a robber queen, a lonely minotaur, a cannibal, an immortal beauty, and a dream seller. Each has a story, and a lesson, for Pico-about learning to love, to persevere, and, of course, to fly.

About this title

About the Author:

Keith Miller is an American who was born in Tanzania, raised in Kenya, and wrote this novel while living in southern Sudan. He now lives in Egypt, where he is a design consultant and art teacher at a center for refugees. The illustrations in The Book of Flying are his own.

From Publishers Weekly:

Solemnly sonorous and emptily pretty, this ersatz quest novel tells how a poet struggles to learn to fly and regain a lost love. In a city where some inhabitants sit in cafes while others fly over the sea, Pico, a wingless poet who works as a librarian, falls in love with one of the winged people. When she eludes Pico's grasp, he despairs until he discovers, hidden near his library, a book telling of a ruined town where he can get his own wings. He immediately sets off for the fabled town, his mission taking him through deep forests into the arms of a lusty, gorgeous robber queen whose charms diminish for the reader when she utters cliches like "It's the ultimate theft, the stealing of another's heartbeat." Other encounters-with a talking rabbit who has compiled many fascinating tomes on local flora; with a young man who, in addition to being the poet's near-spitting image, is a cannibal-bring the poet ever closer to his goal, though each new twist in his journey saps his strength. Wallowing in high-flown whimsy and laughably bad poetry ("His tears have entered every well/ and his semen is the sap of peaches"), the novel rolls along predictably, despite Miller's mix of archetypal fantasy elements (flying people, talking animals, journeys through dark woods) and contemporary detail (the love of cigarettes, ever-present cafes, one city composed largely of booksellers). The downbeat ending skirts the obvious, but little else does in this hot-air-filled debut.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1594480664
• ISBN 13: 9781594480669
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272