Prince of the Skies

From the bestselling author of The Librarian of Auschwitz, Antonio Iturbe, comes a captivating historical novel based on a true story – the extraordinary life and mysterious death of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of The Little Prince. (Now in its 80th Anniversary year!)Flying. Love. War. For some men everything is an adventure . . .All Antoine de Saint Exupéry wants to do is be a pilot. But flying is a dangerous dream and one that sets him at odds with his aristocratic background and the woman he loves. Despite attempts to keep him grounded, Antoine is determined to venture forwards into the unknown. Together with his friends, Jean and Henri, he will pioneer new mail routes across the globe and help change the future of aviation. In the midst of his adventures, Antoine also begins to weave a children's story that is destined to touch the lives of millions of readers around the world. A story called The Little Prince . . .Fame and fortune may have finally found Antoine, but as the shadow of war begins to threaten Europe, he's left to wonder whether his greatest adventure is yet to come . . .Translated by Lilit Žekulin Thwaites, The Prince of the Skies is a moving tale of love and friendship, war and heroism, and the power of the written word.Praise for The Prince of the Skies:'I adored the character of Antoine' - Gill Paul, author of The Secret Wife'What a beautiful, thought-provoking read' - Jennifer Ryan author of The Chilbury's Ladies Choir and The Kitchen Front

The famed writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry may be the title character in Antonio Iturbe’s The Prince of the Skies but his camaraderie with two other pioneering French pilots is what gets this novel airborne. That and its celebration of the sheer joy of flying…What you remember, though, even as fate catches up with Saint-Exupéry and his comrades, is the exhilaration they’ve known in the time they’ve spent aloft., I adored the character of Antoine, a man who is ingenious when flying a plane and an idiot when it comes to love. The descriptions of the life-and-death scrapes he and his aviator colleagues get into are gripping, and there’s a vivid sense of the sheer thrill of flying. It’s spellbinding!, The language is mesmerizing, so lyrical and poetic. What a beautiful, thought-provoking read., Iturbe exuberantly tells the story of author Antoine de Saint-Exupery and his passion for flying, poetry, and beautiful women. The author does a wonderful job of dramatizing how exhilarating and dangerous the early years of civil aviation were for a handful of bold and intrepid pilots. He also recreates in sparking fashion interwar French society. Saint-Ex, his colleagues, and their loves come to life in a novel that would do the author of The Little Prince proud., Like Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, it’s a sophisticated novel with mature themes, delivering an emotionally searing reading experience. An important novel that will stand with other powerful testaments from the Holocaust era

Antonio Iturbe was born in 1967 and grew up in the dock-side neighbourhood of Barceloneta, in Barcelona. He studied Information Sciences at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and over the past fifteen years has worked as a cultural journalist. In 2005, he made his debut as a novelist with the comic novel Rectos torcidos and has written for children with the series Los Casos del Inspector Cito, a collection of the stories he used to read to his son at bedtime. He is the author of the international bestseller The Librarian of Auschwitz and The Prince of the Skies.

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