With this collection, she proves a compelling essayist...her voice direct, lucid, and fearless. All the pieces are enjoyable and often surprising, even when rather slight. But the most substantial ones are memorable—even unforgettable. They deftly straddle the personal and the political.

... opens with its exhilarating eponymous piece, encompassing her heady childhood experiences of flying internationally as an unaccompanied minor as well as the giddy experience of executing a loop de loop in a light aircraft. Both perceptive and informative, that essay sets the tone for the rest of this collection, in which Forna delves into a dynamic tapestry of resonant topics: the various elements that she explores in her fiction — migration, war and its aftermath, familial love, friendship, curiosity, resilience — are equally present in her nonfiction.

... a smart accompaniment to any travel, armchair or actual.

Focused primarily on the passenger seats of airplanes, it luxuriates in the experience of vast flights to far-flung places, its language as soaring as the clouds casting shadows on the oceans below.

Aminatta Forna is one of those writers who I wish was more well known in the United States.

The varied essay lengths give readers time to breathe in between, before they embark on another of Forna’s adventures.

The award-winning Sierra Leonean novelist looks at her life through multiple lenses.

Novelist Forna explores notions of place, identity, and movement in this bracing collection.