| ISBN | 9781928215943 |
| Pages | 158 |
| Dimensions | 198 x 129mm |
| Published | 2020 |
| Publisher | Modjaji Books, South Africa |
| Format | Paperback |
Will, the Passenger Delaying Flight...
by Barbara Adair
A man is travelling to Africa from Europe. And yet it is also about waiting – waiting for Africa.
Volker, a German, leaves his home in Frankfurt for Windhoek. He leaves a lover, he is leaving for a long time, and he does not have a return ticket. He does not know anything about Africa, to him it is one country, not a continent, neither does he really know where he is going to; he just knows that he wants to leave Europe.
Lufthansa, the airline that carries him stops at Charles de Gaulle airport and here he waits and waits and waits. And in the airport he observes and describes and thinks. The text is a stream of consciousness, Volker’s thoughts. Interspersed with this are stories of people he encounters in the airport; a murderer, a terrorist, a person with dwarfism, a trans woman, a porn star, a terrorist, a child trafficker, a paedophile. All are connected, with each other, with Volker and with us, the readers.
Adair’s novel is innovative in form, self-conscious and self-critical; it challenges conventional Western assumptions that all good novels have a clear story line, a good plot and fully rounded characters.
Reviews
Adair is an accomplished writer with the ability to transport her readers into seductive and, at times, dark worlds she skilfully conjures.”
“Barbara Adair is one of South Africa’s most original writers. In
WILL, the Passenger Delaying Flight, her voice is comical, dark and
wittily allusive. Enigmatic from beginning to end, the novel (set in an
airport) never goes where one expects. The narrative is tightly woven;
yet still it soars, borne aloft by its own imaginative charge and
linguistic richness.”
“In a dystopian world that has served up an imperfect future, Adair breathes life into the limbo and emotional baggage of her characters as they travel across the world.”