The Book of Flights

The Book of Flights: An Adventure Story
First English edition
AuthorJ. M. G. Le Clézio
Original titleLe Livre des fuites
TranslatorSimon Watson Taylor
LanguageFrench
PublisherGallimard, Le Chemin
Jonathan Cape (UK)
Publication date1969
Publication placeFrance
Published in English
1971
Pages284 pages
ISBN2-07-071820-4
OCLC315762105

The Book of Flights: An Adventure Story (French: Le Livre des fuites) is a 1969 novel by French Nobel laureate writer J. M. G. Le Clézio. The English translation by Simon Watson Taylor was published in 1971. The novel concerns the real and imaginary journeys of its hero, Young Man Hogan.

Many of Le Clézio's books were out of print in English when he won the Nobel Prize. The English translations began to be reissued shortly afterwards, including this one.

It belongs to Le Clézio's more experimental phase, together with works such as Terra Amata and Les Géants, "hyper-realistic tales dominated by the fundamental war between cities and nature, between mankind and mythology". In these novels, he developed "a highly original brand of the plotless, characterless novel".

Publication history

First French edition

First English edition, London

First English edition, New York

Second English edition

References

  1. 1 2 Jakubowski, Maxim (10 Oct 2008). "JMG Le Clézio: overdue for recognition - and translation". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
  2. ↑ Kelly, Alison (18 Jan 2009). "A Nobel laureate on the birth of a nation". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
  3. ↑ "Only the Words Intact". New York Times. 15 July 1973. Retrieved 23 July 2025.