The Flight Portfolio
A novel
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4.2 • 131 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From the bestselling, award-winning author of The Invisible Bridge comes a gripping tale of forbidden love, high-stakes adventure, and unimaginable courage filled with "suspense and tragedy, unexpected twists and deliverance” (The Seattle Times). • THE INSPIRATION FOR THE NETFLIX SERIES TRANSATLANTIC
MARSEILLE, 1940. Varian Fry, a Harvard-educated journalist and editor, arrives in France. Recognizing the darkness descending over Europe, he and a group of like-minded New Yorkers formed the Emergency Rescue Committee, helping artists and writers escape from the Nazis and immigrate to the United States.
Amid the chaos of World War II, and in defiance of restrictive U.S. immigration policies, Fry must procure false passports, secure visas, seek out escape routes through the Pyrenees and by sea, and make impossible decisions about who should be saved, all while under profound pressure—and in a state of irrevocable personal change.
In this dazzling work of historical fiction—one that illuminates previously unexplored elements of Fry’s story, and has, since its publication, brought us new insight into his life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Orringer's magnificent novel is centered around American journalist Varian Fry's work helping imperiled refugees out of Nazi-occupied France. In 1940, Fry leaves his wife and job behind in New York and travels to Marseille for the Emergency Rescue Committee, formed to get prominent intellectuals and creative artists safely to America. Faced with meager resources, an enormous task, and suspicion from both the Vichy and U.S. governments, Fry makes anguished decisions about which "clients" to help and which to leave in danger. Then he is contacted by his one-time Harvard classmate Elliott Schiffman Grant, with whom he shared an intense mutual attraction. "Skiff," who vanished from Fry's life without explanation 12 years before, wants helps getting his German-born Jewish lover, Gregor Katznelson, and Katznelson's son out of Europe. Fry falls in love with Grant again as he makes increasingly high-stakes decisions about who, and what, to save. As in 2010's superb The Invisible Bridge, Orringer seamlessly combines compelling inventions with complex fact: figures including Marc Chagall and Andre Breton make vivid appearances, while Skiff and his relationship with Fry are unforgettable fictional creations. Brilliantly conceived, impeccably crafted, and showcasing Orringer's extraordinary gifts, this is destined to become a classic.
Customer Reviews
An extraordinary man and accomplishments
A tale, based on truth interspersed with some fictional characters, of a man’s heroic task of saving Europe’s elite artists and intellectuals during the earlier days of WWII. The writing is complex and required very careful reading to adequately capture the sacrifices, the times, the place as well as the personal attachments that must have developed during this harrowing period in Vichy, France.
Excellent!
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Such a mix of sadness, joy, agony and love.tippypoodle