Turbulence: A Novel - Hardcover

David Szalay is the author of Turbulence, Spring, The Innocent, London and the South-East, and All That Man Is. He’s been awarded the Gordon Burn Prize and The Paris Review Plimpton Prize for Fiction and has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Born in Canada, he grew up in London, and now lives in Budapest.

Praise for Turbulence

“Masterful. . . . Its intensity is surprising. . . .  Much of the fun of Turbulence is discovering how Szalay will upend the reader’s perspective of a character from one chapter to the next... Clever... Turbulence suggests that such events might shape us, but they don’t define us. Take a good look, Szalay is saying, and do something about it." Source: The Washington Post

"Turbulence is a sleek machine with a cool tone... Szalay is a gifted writer." Source: Dwight Garner, New York Times

“Profound... Unexpectedly moving... Szalay’s gift for inhabiting entirely different lives is as remarkable and spooky as ever.” Source: The Times

"Presents 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... What Turbulence shares with its predecessor is Szalay’s characteristically effortless prose, his ability to distill lives into vignettes, the sense of an author whose curiosity about his fellow humans is boundless. 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." Source: The Guardian

"Masterfully sketched... Cathartic... Whether in the clouds or on terra firma, Szalay’s travelers are shocked and shaken by various traumas. By rights, his pared-back prose and miniature portraits should be able to describe and convey only so much. But as in his previous novel All That Man Is, his light touches and fleeting glimpses belie great insight and depth.”  Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune

“A (world) tour de force, an exploration in fiction of the concept of six degrees of separation. . . . The chapters are tiny cross sections of lives, lovingly examined under the writer's microscope. The result is a book that is high concept but—thanks to Szalay's gift for compression and the same empathetic imagination that was on display in All That Man Is—never gimmicky. Szalay has devised an ingenious way to accommodate enormous range in a miniature form. Subtle, smart—a triumph.” Source: Kirkus, starred reviews

“Crisp and clever. . . . Writing with a restraint that comes close to minimalism, Szalay boils down each moment to its most vital and crystalline essence.” Source: Vanity Fair

“Turbulence is somehow light yet also quite moving, offering readers deep, empathetic connections with men and women whose lives differ dramatically from those of one another. Szalay’s range is impressive, given the tendency of many novelists to circumscribe their stories within a particular culture or social circle, usually the one most familiar to them. By contrast, Szalay draws his characters from a variety of nationalities, economic circumstances, religious identities, and stages of life, yet all are distinct individuals who are entirely believable and captivating. . . . Szalay is particularly adept at immersing us in the consciousness of men who, whether doctors or gardeners, rage against their powerlessness in the wider world and in the smaller world of their personal lives. That he does so with such economy is what makes Turbulence masterful... Compelling... I wanted more time with every person in Szalay’s book.”  Source: Christian Science Monitor

"Elegant... Impressive... Page by page, Szalay’s mixture of directness and withholding looks increasingly masterly." Source: The Financial Times

"A satisfying, globetrotting narrative." Source: AM New York