Air

You can't run away from the past. Not even 11,000 feet above the ground. Successful child psychologist Aaron Umber is at a fateful crossroads in his life. Instead of celebrating his 40th birthday on a sunny Sydney beach, he sits on a plane with his teenage son Emmet, who communicates mostly through a wall of headphones and annoyed looks. They travel halfway across the globe to Ireland to visit a woman who is not expecting them at all, to attend a funeral that is meant to close a dark family chapter forever. However, Aaron is carrying luggage on board that will not pass any airport x-ray. He is haunted by memories of the evil done to him when he was exactly Emmet's age. With every kilometer he covers, his paranoia and fear of failing as a father grows. The cramped space of the plane acts as a pressure cooker of emotions, and Aaron soon realises that this twenty-hour journey above the clouds can either unite them forever or tear them apart for good. The master storyteller and author of the global phenomenon The Boy in the Striped Pajamas delivers the gripping finale to his ambitious and award-winning tetralogy Elements - a deeply human, raw and emotionally gripping novel about guilt, fragile fatherhood and the quiet hope of redemption. It's a book that will grip your heart and take your breath away - so you can finally take a deep breath on the last page. Published in co-edition with Slovart Publishing House. "I need to pour out my feelings before the book I dropped from my hands hits the bed. Air is a stunning conclusion to the brilliant tetralogy Elements. Just pick up the first volume of the series and buckle up for the journey." - from reader reviews on Goodreads.com "Air does a great job of bringing the quartet together, showing us traumas that reverberate across people and places, and allowing us to learn the fate of the other characters, with at least one of them beginning to confront her past." - BookShelfDiscovery "This novel is a testament to John Boyne's strong storytelling talents. Despite only a few pages, it offers a lot." - Irish Examiner "Everything fell into place. The circle has come full circle. Krátké knihy v sérii, ale silné.“ – ze čtenářských ohlasů na Databazeknih.cz „Dnes večer jsi jí nic neřekl, že ne?“ zeptal jsem se a on zavrtěl hlavou. "Oh my God, no. It was definitely not the right moment." "You seemed to be having a good time together." "As much as possible at a funeral feast," he shrugged. "But I'm glad we're here. And I'm glad you told me what you told me. It explains a lot. I mean, I still have a lot to understand, about all this, about her, about both of you, But -" "There's something else," I interrupted. "What? About Mom?" "No," I shook my head. "About me." After all, we've come this far. If there was ever a time to bring to the surface all the secrets that have marked our lives with so much trauma, it was now. - excerpt from the book