I think Flights might be a masterpiece. I wanted to read it again as soon as I’d finished it. WIth no conventional structure, and no central narrative or character, 'Flights' is more like a surreal scrapbook, compiled by someone with some rather niche interests, yet Sebald-esque in its beauty and originality (about the highest praise I can bestow). In the textual vernissage of its 116 sections, there are themes that develop, people who reappear, and stories that are told in instalments; other fragments are unexpected observations, aphorisms and asides, some are text-book like passages on historical matters, some are passages of gorgeous lyrical prose, and how you make sense of it all is up to you, dear reader, which is all very post-modern, and I love it, personally. This literary cabinet of curiosities is curated by a nameless female traveller, in perpetual motion herself, with a thoroughly deadpan Eastern European lack of affect. Amazingly, it does cohere and the end result is astonishing, and I now have to read everything Olga Tokarczuk has ever written.

Who said whe are meant to live life in a single place, rooted to a certain land? And what are we missing? Flights is a unique book, to the point that every book and travel lover should own a copy even if there is no current intention to read it! It is built up in fragments ( chaos and disorder, just like the life of a nomad), yet the brilliance of Tokarczuk lies in avoiding the risk of being loose! Rather she builds up a book that keeps you turning the pages despite the fact that sometimes you don’t know where you are heading! Tokarczuk states that we have to live life in constant motion (inspired by Ode river); not just physically rather a motion of ideas and feelings! Any stagnation is a risk of destruction ( a man unable to get over a certain idea goes mad at the end!) Flights is also a journey to find the true essence of a human being both anatomically and spiritually! Between short chapters of observations on travels ( in airports, train stations, boat and unique ideas, there are a few long stories that are beautifully told! Mixing both reality and fiction, Olga Tokarczuk sweeps us to different parts of the world; a doctor’s obsession with the female body and his quest to eternally preserve it, the discovery of Achilles tendon by Verheyen and the obsession with the flawed human parts and fetuses by Ruysch who was the first to invent a preservative fluid ( is it ethical?). The life we live are as mysterious as those bodies we inhabit and the secrets of both are intertwined together. It also dissects human nature in tales where a woman leaves her crippled son and lives freely, a woman commiting an act of mercy killing and a young woman married to an old man posing questions of aging and manhood! It is interesting the some of these stories are told by the women who history failed to immortalize such as when Chopin’s sister narrates the journey of her brother’s heart to his homeland ( for what is home? Is it the place where we are born and we complete the circle by dying there?) and a daughter writing to a king demanding a proper burial of her father who was preserved in a curiosity cabinet! Through the discovery of human anatomy she poses the question if the body is as important as the soul? Or are our bodies just artistically built suitcases for the brief journey on Earth? Olga ( and the translator Croft) also puts us under her spell in how she chooses her words and builds her her sentences; the lyrical prose she uses describing a new species discovered on Earth ( plastic bags), describing how a stroke swept its control over a man’s brain, how every flight is a promise of something new and human’s obsession with preserving moments ( and body parts)! She also makes us feel powerless infront of Mother’s nature architectural power! In a chapter titled “ The Tongue is the Strongest Muscle”, she discusses how native english speakers have destroyed their uniquness by having a language spoken by all the planet ( the importance of language and how humans keep on searching for something that distingushes them from fellow humans). Olga leaves us at the end with a group of travellers whose journey end with a white wall and questions us: where does our journey end? Flights was an unforgettable journey into the human body and mind. It is one of the books that I will always keep with me no matter where life takes me!

This book is a collection of short stories with main ones taken from the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The short stories themselves are detailed and interesting but the read is fractured and while all the stories are linked by travel it’s not really a straight read. Expect lots of short paragraphs that will prompt nostalgia in any traveller followed by long chapters of bizarre characters doing bizarre things. A big change from what I normally read and while I enjoyed parts it wasn’t really for me. If you’re looking for a novel, this isn’t it. If you want a complicated bundle of tales grouped together with wit, wisdom and travel psychology then it’s definitely worth reading.