or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
Sorry!
More Buying Choices
65 used & new from $0.38

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Natural Flights of the Human Mind: A Novel (P.S.)
 
See larger image
 
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

Natural Flights of the Human Mind: A Novel (P.S.) (Paperback)

~ (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Price: $14.95 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Only 1 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want it delivered Friday, November 13? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
29 new from $0.93 36 used from $0.38

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
  Hardcover, Import -- -- $0.01
  Paperback $14.95 $0.93 $0.38

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Astonishing Splashes of Colour (P.S.) by Clare Morrall

Natural Flights of the Human Mind: A Novel (P.S.) + Astonishing Splashes of Colour (P.S.)
  • This item: Natural Flights of the Human Mind: A Novel (P.S.) by Clare Morrall

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Astonishing Splashes of Colour (P.S.) by Clare Morrall

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Language of Others

The Language of Others

by Clare Morrall
4.5 out of 5 stars (2)  $9.56
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

by Maggie O'Farrell
4.2 out of 5 stars (79)  $9.20
What now?

What now?

by Chip Kidd
4.6 out of 5 stars (24)  $5.18
My Lover's Lover

My Lover's Lover

by Maggie O'Farrell
3.6 out of 5 stars (12)  $8.59
Veronica

Veronica

by Mary Gaitskill
3.4 out of 5 stars (69)  $11.16
Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Grappling with larger-than-life issues of guilt, redemption and forgiveness, Morrall showcases the kind of quirky characters and improbable plotting that made her debut, Astonishing Splashes of Colour, a finalist for Britain's prestigious Booker Prize. Is a 50-something hermit, Peter Straker, responsible for the deaths of 78 people a quarter-century ago, when he crashed his small plane into a moving passenger train? The coroner ruled the crash an accident, but the details are hazy in Peter's memory, part of his former life as a drunken playboy. Eaten by guilt, Peter doesn't speak except to the 78 victims, who now live in his head: "There isn't room in his mind for anyone else." For two years, he has corresponded with the passengers' families under false pretenses, fueling his own guilt and inciting the families to seek him out for revenge. When morose, embittered Imogen Doody, a 40-ish school caretaker and writer, inherits a dilapidated cottage near the decommissioned lighthouse where Peter lives, Peter begins a tentative engagement with the world of the living, pursuing an unlikely relationship with her. Morrall is a deft guide through the landscape of grief, but her artistic prose can distance readers from her characters.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist

Booker Prize finalist Clare Morrall invites the reader to the Devon coast and into the company of Peter Straker, living in a former working lighthouse, and Imogen Doody, a school caretaker living in a run-down cottage she has inherited in a nearby village. Both Straker and Doody are misfits in their own right. Haunted by their respective pasts and each hiding something, both struggle to come to terms with the tragic events that changed their lives some 24 years ago. Did Straker really kill 78 people? And what is it about seeing a biplane take to the air? Did he once have a pilot's license? Morrall places the reader alone with Straker and Doody, alone with the wind and the sea. Guilt, death, and the impact of premature death on families and friends are at the core of this novel. Straker and Doody's relationship is initially uncomplicated; then it all changes. Readers will remember them painting in silence, the tension of their conversations as it begins to dissipate, and the increasing ease of their presence. Sarah Watstein
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

  • Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Perennial (June 13, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0060843365
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060843366
  • Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,377,034 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

More About the Author

Clare Morrall
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Visit Amazon's Clare Morrall Page

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Natural Flights of the Human Mind: A Novel (P.S.)
66% buy the item featured on this page:
Natural Flights of the Human Mind: A Novel (P.S.) 5.0 out of 5 stars (3)
$14.95
Astonishing Splashes of Colour (P.S.)
20% buy
Astonishing Splashes of Colour (P.S.) 4.2 out of 5 stars (14)
$12.56
The Language of Others
14% buy
The Language of Others 4.5 out of 5 stars (2)
$9.56

Tag this product

 (What's this?)
Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.
Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

 

Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A novel with a bit of everything, August 14, 2006
By Bookreporter.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews
Peter Straker lives alone in a lighthouse on the Devon coast. But his mind is full of the voices of 78 people who died in a train wreck almost 25 years ago. Peter feels responsible; he is sure he caused their deaths but isn't certain how. In the lighthouse, as the coast tears away at the shore, he hears their voices, accusations and sometimes even their kindness. Peter lives like a hermit, going to town only for food and supplies and talking to no one. But the arrival of Imogen Doody forces him out of his exile and back into the world of the living.

Clare Morrall's sophomore effort, following ASTONISHING SPLASHES OF COLOUR (a Booker Prize finalist) centers on Peter and Imogen as they navigate a tenuous and emotional relationship that makes each deal with their tragic past and their hopes for the future.

Imogen, or "Doody," is a school caretaker, an angry woman with no friends and a strained relationship with her family. She discovers she has inherited a cottage on the Devon coast from a godfather she never knew. The cottage is a dream come true, a place to be alone with her thoughts and perhaps even finish the novel she half-heartedly has been working on. But the cottage is also a disaster, abandoned and decrepit, and she has neither the money nor the know-how to fix it up. It is her activity in the cottage that attracts Peter, and he talks with his first living person in years when he meets Doody. Her anger flashes again and again and he retreats to his lighthouse again and again, but they eventually come to something of a truce and begin to work on the cottage together.

Over time they open up to each other and discover that both were emotionally scarred and damaged 25 years ago --- Peter with the train wreck and Doody when her husband abandoned her never to be heard from again. Could the events be related? And why does the discovery that Doody has also inherited a small plane make Peter so upset? What happened to Doody's husband, and what happened when Peter last flew a plane almost 25 years ago?

Although Morrall's book is not a mystery, these questions and others haunt the narrative as they do the characters.

NATURAL FLIGHTS OF THE HUMAN MIND is a beautiful, thoughtful and thoroughly successful novel. Morrall's characters seem and act real; while the foundational events are quite extraordinary, Peter and Doody are just normal people who are lonely and guilty and more than a little afraid of relationships and the future.

Morrall's prose is lovely and quite readable. This is serious stuff without being heavy, and character-driven without being dull. And there is resolution without easy answers or clichés. This is also a novel that is creative in its description and use of setting. The lighthouse seems to be crumbling along with the shore as Peter explores the truth of his responsibility and the world at large intrudes upon his solitude. Doody must clear away the years of misuse to find the beauty and functional space in the cottage.

Guilt, grief, family, forgiveness, tragic pasts, drama, an unforgettable setting and uniquely drawn characters --- this novel has it all.

--- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you, Ms Morrall, for your perseverance. I eagerly await more!, January 4, 2007
After reading Clare Morrall's 'Astonishing Splashes of Colour', which was fantastic, I was thrilled to see this second novel published so soon. I will not review the story line of 'Natural Flights'; you can read a great report already submitted by reviewer [..]on this Amazon site. I will simply say that Clare Morral wrote 4 unpublished novels before these two were published. Someone needs to take a serious look at the others and see if they warrant publication, too. Ms Morrall is a gifted writer and I'd like to thank her for her amazing perseverance. I eagerly await her next book.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written, February 25, 2009
By BP (Europe) - See all my reviews
Although the novel deals with tragedy, hurting, and loneliness, it is told in a fluent, smooth manner, with the language never getting too heavy or depressing. The characters are unbelievably real, they feel like your next door neighbors rather than fictional personalities. Worth reading.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums




Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)


Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject

 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.