Franklin Flyer
A Novel
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
In this shimmering work of fiction, Nicholas Christopher follows the remarkable life of Franklin Flyer–a restless young inventor named after the train on which he was born–through the tumultuous years of the Great Depression, into the Second World War.
Raised by his suffragette aunt, at various times a vagabond and tycoon, Franklin travels across the U.S.A and around the globe, seeking adventure and enlightenment, charting his fate by pursuing the unexpected.
He encounters a glittering cast of characters: among them Rita Hayworth, Josephine Baker, OSS founder “Wild Bill” Donovan, and a host of political zealots, opportunists, and dreamers thrown together in a world on the brink of collapse.
With each new invention–devices that help to revolutionize everything from early television to the technology with which the Allies respond to the Axis powers–Franklin makes his mark. Gaining fame and fortune, he also suffers terrible heartbreak, and through numerous transformations discovers that a man’s own life is truly his most difficult, and rewarding, invention.
A brisk, vivid blend of history and imagination, Franklin Flyer brings to life an American hero as unforgettable as his times.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
If Graham Greene collaborated with the creator of Dick Tracy, the result might read like this quirky, whirlwind tale of ordinary men contending with a worldwide Nazi conspiracy. Christopher (A Trip to the Stars) starts things off in the 1930s, whenFranklin Flyer, a young American inventor and adventurer, signs on as interpreterfor an expedition into the Argentine outback to hunt for deposits of zilium, a miracle metal. Returning to the States, Flyer is involved in numerous scrapes until he ends up working as an illustrator for Otto Zuhl's pulp empire. With the money he makes from one of his inventions, Flyer buys out Zuhl, whose friends one of whom he recognizes from the zilium expedition turn out to be a bunch of Nazi sympathizers.He is smitten by Zuhl's secretary, Persephone Eckert, who is weirdly stocked with esoteric Egyptian lore. However, as the low, dishonest decade nears its end, Flyer has no time for minor mysteries: U.S. intelligence has recruited him to break up the zilium ring. He ends up in Marseilles, where among the crowds of refugees he meets a former lover, Narcissa, and learns he has a daughter. Flyer gets them out of France and is then given the most dangerous assignment of his career. This one should go over well with readers of WWII espionage novels, but Franklin who's like a smart Forrest Gump will appeal to a broader audience, too.
