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‘On the twenty-seventh day of the month of June, in the year of grace 1731, my brother, Bartolomeu Lourenço, rose on his airship from the ancient ramparts of SAo Jorge Castle. I remember the day as clearly as if it were yesterday. . .’
Thus begins Passarola Rising, a fabulous historical tale of two brothers and their love of flight. Bartolomeu Lourenço builds the airship Passarola to escape the intellectually stultifying climate of eighteenth-century Portugal, where his pursuit of scientific knowledge is condemned as heresy. He and his brother Alexandre take to the air, and journey through much of Europe, from the Spanish countryside to the salons and bordellos of Paris, encountering some of the most colourful characters of the European Enlightenment, from the loquacious Voltaire to the irascible King Stanislaus of Poland. After a long and arduous flight to the desolate far reaches of the North Pole that all but kills them, Alexandre opts out of further adventures, marries and settles down. Bartolomeu continues to fly alone. He goes as far as India and New Guinea and higher than the last clouds, to the edge of space, till he is lost to the world of men.
Filled with evocative period detail, magic and suspense, Azhar Abidi’s debut novel is a picaresque, and ultimately haunting, tale that also touches upon the nature of truth, love and the meaning of fraternal companionship. ISBN 9780670058754
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Pages : 256
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