Book description
In a country recovering from a brutal and divisive civil war, a young
boy, Jamie, is knocked off his bike and dies in a city street. His
father agrees to allow one of Jamie's lungs to be removed and flown
over the border for a transplant.
As the night unfolds and the plane travels across the war-ravaged
country, we see the drama from three different perspectives: the
father, grieving for the son he perhaps never knew well enough; the
lung's recipient, an old man fighting for breath; and in the turbulent
sky between them, the young pilot who is closest to Jamie - or at
least to his breath, his spirit, his voice.
Michael Symmons Roberts has published two novels and four collections
of poetry, including
Corpus
, which won the Whitbread Poetry Award. He is a frequent collaborator
with the composer James Macmillan.
