An original BBC Radio 4 commission, Turbulence is the new short story sequence from the Man Booker prize-shortlisted author of All That Man Is.
The brilliant new short story sequence from the Man Booker-shortlisted author of All That Man Is *Shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2019*
Twelve people on the move around planet Earth, twelve individual lives, each in turmoil, and each in some way touching the next.
In this nuanced and deeply moving sequence, David Szalay’s diverse protagonists circumnavigate the world in twelve plane journeys, from London to Madrid, from Dakar to Sao Paulo, to Toronto, to Delhi, to Doha, en route to see lovers and parents, children and siblings, or nobody at all.
Along the way, Szalay deftly depicts the ripple effect that, knowingly or otherwise, a person’s actions have on those around them, and invites us to consider our own place in the vast and delicately balanced network of human relationships that is the world we live in today.
David Szalay is the author of four previous works of fiction: Spring, The Innocent, London and the South-East, for which he was awarded the Betty Trask and Geoffrey Faber Memorial prizes, and All That Man Is, for which he was awarded the Gordon Burn prize and Plimpton Prize for Fiction, and shortlisted for the Man Booker prize. Born in Canada, he grew up in London, and now lives in Budapest.
“The wonderful David Szalay is back with Turbulence (Cape), an Editor's Choice for me.”
Alice O'Keeffe, Bookseller
“[David Szalay's] mastery of form is evident: with deft touches he builds a tangible world.”
Hannah Shaddock, Radio Times
“More tales of mortality from a master of the genre... [Turbulence] is a chilling achievement.”
David Sexton, Evening Standard
“I was intrigued by the premise and the first story didn't disappoint, capturing that altered state which being cooped up in [an aeroplane] seems to invoke.”
Kate Chisholm, Spectator
“Beautifully and delicately told. Each perfectly-formed story is part of a bigger narrative, as Szalay explores the way our actions influence those around us, and highlights the fact that while our technologically connected planet seems to be growing smaller, the people living upon it have grown more isolated from one another.”
Christian Lisseman, Big Issue
“Ingenious… [David Szalay] knows about people… Stark and spare, Turbulence is an impressive novel.”
Brian Martin, Spectator
“Reading David Szalay is like receiving a series of electric shocks: his preference for short, sharp sketches, rather than a single, linear plot, means that his books deny the reader the comforts of conventional, more languid storytelling… Szalay’s stories may be over in just a matter of minutes, but they are violently, appallingly immersive.”
Claire Allfree, Daily Mail
“Turbulence is attempting to do on a global scale what Szalay’s last book, All That Man Is, did for Europe: present us with a series of lives that feel at once profoundly particular and yet also emblematic, a portrait of our species at a time of crisis… The 21st century, Turbulence suggests, is taking place several miles above the earth, or in overlit and anonymous airports. Szalay is our greatest chronicler of these rootless, tradeworn places, and the desperate, itinerant lives of those who inhabit them.”
Alex Preston, Observer
“One of the impressive things about [Turbulence] is the speed and deftness with which Szalay convinces the reader that he knows what it's like to be an Indian guest worker in Qatar, an upmarket journalist in Sao Paulo, or a prosperous Senegalese businessman... Szalay's mixture of directness and withholding looks increasingly masterly.”
Financial Times
“Especially striking, in Mr Szalay’s recent work [Turbulence], is how easily he inhabits diverse perspectives… A willingness to leave the dots unjoined is one of the virtues that make Mr Szalay's fiction so rewarding.”
Economist
“Affecting… an ambitious, realist and fascinating sequenced collection that often courts discomfort.”
Mika Ross-Southall, Sunday Times
“Szalay conjures up his characters and locations deftly and elegantly, giving each subtle vignette a lingering resonance.”
Anthony Gardner, Mail on Sunday
“Szalay’s gift for inhabiting entirely different lives is as remarkable and spooky as ever.”
Andrew Billen, The Times
“Embedded in each story is a similar moment of jeopardy, disrupting the illusion to remind us how “normal life” is as unlikely and precarious as flight… Each chapter is extremely short, and yet, with impressive economy, Szalay establishes both a new character and sense of security, only to shatter it with a swift, surprising reveal.”
Claire Lowdon, Times Literary Supplement
“There’s barely a story here which isn’t in some way engaging and absorbing, the author’s compassion and involvement with characters shining through even in times of deepest isolation.”
Alastair Mabbott, The Herald
“Each story is wonderfully imagined, with a pleasing absence of authorial sermonising. Ambitious and haunting, these expertly executed vignette – confident in their concision and control – seem hard to improve upon.”
Jude Cook
“What Szalay does so well is the minute-by-minute apprehension of the close-up world…combined…with an impressively global vision… It’s part of Szalay’s genius that he can encompass the distance between the two.”
Justine Jordan, Guardian
“As Szalay consistently uproots his reader, proliferating characters and locations, the collection could be seen as an experiment in the limits of sympathy… the perfect foil to some heart-stoppingly beautiful prose.”
Sophie Ratcliffe, Daily Telegraph
“Powerful stuff… incisive writing.”
Rob Doyle, Irish Times
“High-concept and highbrow… a surprisingly poignant lap around the world”
Lauren Mechling, Vanity Fair
“Turbulence…works brilliantly, with each tale carrying on from the last, interconnected by characters on a journey somewhere. The transitory nature of modern life is captured magnificently, building into a fine meditation on 21st-century anxiety.”
