Each summer, we read a novel and explore its themes through conversations with leading thinkers at the intersection of science and culture.
This summer, we’ll read Flights by Polish author Olga Tokarczuk, the recipient of the 2018 Nobel Prize in literature.
Flights is an enigma of a novel—part memoir, part short story collection, part ethnography of travel—that explores the human impulse toward movement; the perpetual tension between exploring somewhere new or staying put.
“Clearly I did not inherit whatever gene it is that makes it so when you linger in a place you start to put down roots,” Tokarczuk’s ephemeral narrator tells us in the opening pages. “My energy derives from movement—from the shuddering of buses, the rumble of planes, trains’ and ferries’ rocking.”
Flights is often billed as a book about travel, and Tokarczuk delights with original and memorable observations about the experience of being on the move—including the people you encounter and the places you encounter them. But calling Flights a novel about travel obscures the force with which Tokarczuk asks: What are you running from? What are you running toward?
At times playful and surprising, at others morbid and mysterious, Flights offers us a chance to explore our own journeys. And as we travel, through space and time, in our minds, and over the course of our lives, what do our experiences and memories amount to? Do they form a meaningful whole? Or are they simply fragments; the fruits of entropy and fate rather than free will?
We hope you’ll read Flights with us this summer to explore these questions and others. New this year, the Book Club will include:
- A five-part podcast exploring themes from the book with guest experts
- Collaborative memory map of the places and travels that have changed us
- Live and asynchronous group discussions
- Special feature articles
- A final, celebratory online event
The book club will begin the week of July 6 and run through August, culminating with an online event in early September. There are both asynchronous and live participation opportunities, so you can tailor the book club to your summer schedule. (For a full overview of how things will work this summer, head here.)
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