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Benjamin Johncock - The Last Pilot (2nd Hand Paperback)
SKU B003106
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Synopsis
Winner - Authors' Club Best First Novel Award 2016.
Shortlisted for the East Anglian Book Awards 2015.
Selected for Brave New Reads 2016.
With echoes of Raymond Carver as well as Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff and Richard Yates' Revolutionary Road, The Last Pilot re-ignites the thrill and excitement of the space race through the story of one man's courage in the face of unthinkable loss.
Set against the backdrop of one of the most emotionally charged periods in American history, The Last Pilot begins in the bone-dry Mojave Desert during the late 1940's, where US Air Force test pilots are racing to break the sound barrier. Among the exalted few is Jim Harrison: dedicated to his wife, Grace, and their baby daughter.
By the 1960's, the space race is underway and Harrison and his colleagues are offered a place in history as the world s first astronauts. But when his young family is thrown into crisis, Jim is faced with a decision that will affect the course of the rest of his life whether to accept his ticket to the moon and at what cost
Details
- Format : Standard 2nd Hand Paperback
- Condition : Very Good (Almost As New)
- Category : Fiction - Action, Adventure & Western
- Published : 2015 (This Edition 2016 - Myriad)
- ISBN : 9781908434845
- SKU : B003106
- PPC : SP300gm
- RRP : £8.99
- Quantity Available : 1 only.
External Reviews
"Nostalgic and heart-rending . . . hypnotic. Not only has Johncock stripped his narrative down to sleek, aerodynamic paragraphs, but he tells much of this story in clipped dialogue that only suggests the pain swelling beneath the lines . . . the effect is supercharged Hemingway at 70,000 feet." - Washington Post.
"Reading Johncock one is reminded of Hemingway, Cormac McCarthy and especially of James Salter's The Hunters . . . a first-rate novel by a major new talent." - The Spectator.
"A big, muscular novel . . . tenderly undercut by the quite different theme of a marriage and a family under unbearable stress . . . convincing and moving." - Guardian.
"A taut domestic drama whose stringent prose evokes the emotional and physical landscape of a time and a place, this is a remarkably accomplished debut." - Mail on Sunday.
"His descriptive writing has a clean grace that recalls Cormac McCarthy . . . Johncock's story and characters take flight: this is a very promising debut." - New Statesman.
"In this riveting and beautifully written novel . . . Johncock brings fresh perspective and new energy to this old story ground." - Daily Mail.
"A remarkable achievement . . . lit by the fire of 1960's adventure, and also by the blazing beauty of a new literary star." - Boston Globe.
"In this spare gem of a novel Johncock is superb at crafting suspenseful scenes. A dramatic tale." - BBC Culture.
"Tightly told with searing uncomplicated prose, The Last Pilot is as engaging for its emotional gravitas as it is for its enthralling story of the race to space I couldn't put it down." - Amazon: Best Books of the Month.
"The dialogue is clean and smooth and Johncock's spare prose gallops along at a fair pace." - The Herald.
"Marvellous. Johncock seamlessly blends history and fiction, science and intimacy." - Sunday Express.
" . . . the dialogue flows effortlessly. Whether it's a husband and wife's banter or the jargon of a pre-flight check, Johncock gets each voice absolutely right. He also has some terrific characters . . ." - The Bookbag.
The Author
Benjamin Johncock is an award-winning novelist, short story writer and journalist. He was born in Canterbury in 1978 and studied ancient history and archaeology at the University of Birmingham. His debut novel, The Last Pilot, was published in the U.S. (Picador) and U.K. (Myriad) in 2015 to widespread critical acclaim. It won the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award, was shortlisted for the East Anglian Book of the Year, selected for Brave New Reads, and was one of The Observer’s Hidden Gems of 2016.
His award-winning short stories have been published by The Fiction Desk, The Junket, Comma Press and Storgy. His journalism has appeared in the Guardian, The Spectator, and many others.