Falling for Icarus: A Journey Among the Cretans (Tauris Parke Paperbacks) - Softcover

MacLean, Rory

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1848859562 ISBN 13: 9781848859562

Publisher: Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2012

Synopsis

On a windy spring morning in an ancient Cretan village, Rory MacLean fell to earth. His mother had died a few months earlier and a single obsession had risen from his grief: the notion to build a feather-light flying machine. And so, on the island where Daedalus and Icarus had made man’s maiden flight, MacLean journeyed back to beginnings, back into the Greek myths, and—with the help of his Cretan neighbors and plenty of wine—built a plane and tried to fly.

Falling for Icarus is at once a meditation on love, a celebration of the passion for flight, and a hilarious, vivid portrait of a village. Its generous and exhilarating characters restore MacLean’s faith in life. Through them, he tells a soaring, moving story about how a dream can transform sadness.

About this title

Book Description:

An internationally acclaimed memoir of loss, love, and rediscovery as the author builds a featherlight plane to fly on the same island as the myth of Icarus.

About the Author:

Rory MacLean is a writer, broadcaster, blogger, and fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His eight books, including UK bestsellers Stalin's Nose and Under the Dragon, have challenged and invigorated travel writing and, according to the late John Fowles, are among works that “marvellously explain why literature still lives.” He has won awards from the Canada Council and the Arts Council of England as well as a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship, and was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary prize. He has written and presented over 50 BBC radio programs and worked on movies with Marlene Dietrich and David Bowie. Born in Canada and resident for many years in Britain, Rory now divides his time between London and Berlin.

About this edition

• Publisher: Tauris Parke Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1848859562
• ISBN 13: 9781848859562
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352