Book Description

A band of misfits boards an airship to search for utopia, in this novel by the author of The Balloonist, a National Book Award finalist: “A delight” (Philip Pullman, author of The Amber Spyglass). An unemployed American metaphysician, a perpetually ill English nurse, a guilt-ridden German captain—they and a handful of others are about to board an airship called The League of Nations. Under the seductive spell of Moira, a mix of mystic, cult leader, and prophet, these haunted men and broken women will go in search of a mysterious polar promised land—but the journey may not take them where they expect it to . . . Set in the years after the First World War, this is a uniquely imaginative novel from an author praised by the Chicago Tribune as “a gifted craftsman, a meticulous writer whose powers as a storyteller are as compelling as the sexual tensions he imagines.” “His sympathy for such a range of characters in their crazinesses, their various kinds of loneliness, their sheer comedy is wonderful. I think it’s one of his very best.” —Philip Pullman, author of The Amber Spyglass “As stirring and beautiful as one of the airships that MacDonald Harris so obviously delighted in . . . Witty, sexy, surprising, and so generous to his cast of crackpots and con-artists and heartsore seekers.” —Owen King, author of Double Feature “[The author] weaves a magical web of words in his narrative of mysticism, séances and a dirigible named The League of Nations . . . The action is inspired and written in undeniably gorgeous prose.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)