Flights cover art

Flights

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Flights

By: Olga Tokarczuk, Jennifer Croft - translator
Narrated by: Clare Corbett
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Winner of the Man Booker International Prize 2018

Flights, a novel about travel in the 21st century and human anatomy, is Olga Tokarczuk’s most ambitious to date. It interweaves travel narratives and reflections on travel with an in-depth exploration of the human body, broaching life, death, motion and migration.

From the 17th century, we have the story of the Dutch anatomist Philip Verheyen, who dissected and drew pictures of his own amputated leg. From the 18th century, we have the story of a North African-born slave turned Austrian courtier stuffed and put on display after his death. In the 19th century, we follow Chopin’s heart as it makes the covert journey from Paris to Warsaw. In the present we have the trials of a wife accompanying her much older husband as he teaches a course on a cruise ship in the Greek islands, and the harrowing story of a young husband whose wife and child mysteriously vanish on a holiday on a Croatian island.

With her signature grace and insight, Olga Tokarczuk guides the listener beyond the surface layer of modernity and towards the core of the very nature of humankind.

©2017 Olga Tokarczuk (P)2019 Audible, Ltd Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction Marriage Heartfelt

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Years cover art
The Netanyahus cover art
Hurricane Season cover art
The Lost Castle cover art
The Mahé Circle cover art
Time Tunnel: The Twin Towers cover art
Middlemarch cover art
The Magnolia Palace cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
Never listened to anything like this it was totally different and definitely worth listening to. One of the reasons I left the review is the narration. I read so many reviews that it was terrible so I was shocked that it was excellent and no I’m not a relation. She has a beautiful voice and a lot of different voices she was perfect for the book. In my experience a lot of people are intimidated in some way by an educated voice but who did you want to read it. Excellent narration

Excellent Narration Good Book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
“Flights” by Olga Tokarczuk is composed of a series of interconnected essays, stories, and fragments. The narrator, who is the main character, embarks on a journey around the world and through time to find herself. In her journey, she is particularly interested in body parts, death, motion, and relationships. One of the central ideas is that a sedentary life, or remaining motionless, can be a trap—motion is necessary for personal development.

Other themes in the book include relationships, often explored through the lens of a middle-aged woman—the author herself—experiencing a midlife crisis. The female characters have many questions about their relationships and undertake a journey to find answers. Some of the stories or fragments are like poems and require re-reading and contemplation to fully understand, while others are more straightforward and read like a novel.

My favorite fragment was "On the Origin of Species" and the metaphor of a plastic bag, which is compared to humans, especially those who travel in search of themselves but never settle down. These travelers, like the plastic bag, seem delicate and frail at first glance, but this is an illusion—they are long-lived and almost indestructible. They are pure forms seeking content, but quickly tire of it, throwing themselves to the wind once more.

“Flights” is not an easy read, but it deserves 5 stars. The translation is beautiful, and it’s well-read, although some of the foreign names and words could have been pronounced with greater care.

Beautifully poetic but not easy read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is great book by an amazing author. It is narrated in a posh, highly-strung, gender stereotyped, irritating voice. I regret i downloaded it. I will buy a copy to read

Narration irritating

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Was hoping for a hard-to-define, engaging and thought-provoking listen like Maria Popova's Figuring, but this was rambling and whimsical without ever seeming to arrive at a point, or a point of interest. I certainly don't recognise it as a novel about travel or the human body, as it is described. It seems more like a collection of of rather peripatetic thoughts.

Vague and unfulfilling

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The writing and some of the stories in this collection are mesmerising but be aware that this is not a novel. Included in the series of stories ranging from vignettes to novellas are some haunting tales; a Polish man on holiday in Croatia whose wife and child disappear, a Russian woman with an urge to escape a life dictated by love for her disabled child. Loosely linked by themes of flight and the cage that is the body, the stories build in power. Stick with it and you won't be disappointed.

Brilliant writing but not a novel

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved the way Olga took us on the traveling board of different personalities. Genius

Unusual and peaceful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Amazing iteration of that hybrid genre the lyric essay, fantastic translation and excellent narration. Loved this. Highly recommended if you’re not looking for plot, which I never am!

Brilliant

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Endured 4 hours before I gave up completely. The book comes across as the pretentious disconnected ramblings of someone trying to find underlying meaning where there is none. The voice of the narrator is also unappealing and distracting. Perhaps it would be (slightly) better as a written book than an audiobook but somehow I doubt that, since the content itself if so uninspiring.

Pretentious ramblings

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I have to admit to enduring only 3 hours before giving up and skipping through. This is not a novel but a vignette off various unconnected bits of travel related stories.... Some might find it dreamy but I found it dull, pointless, irritating and jarring...I rarely don't finish a book, but this I could not figure on for more than five minutes. Maybe it's a better read than a listen although I am a touch bemused b as to how's it won the booker prize...

Pointless

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Got it and thought it would be a good supplement for my paper version. The voice of the narrator is too unsettling to continue. Such a shame. I regret did not listen to the sample first.

The voice is too annoying to continue

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews