Turbulence – & other David Szalay books

I read – it’s a quick read – David Szalay’s 2019 book Turbulence, an interesting series of connected ‘flight’ chapters, each titled with its airport departure and arrival codes and each with a character who continues into the next chapter. The New York Times review where I first encountered Turbulence commented that it’s a check for our travel sophistication, there are plenty of airport codes we all know: LHR, JFK, CDG, SIN, LAX – none of which feature in this book. But DSS – Dakar Blaise Diagne in Dakar, Senegal; GRU – São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport, also known as Cumbica Airport, Brazil; YYZ – Toronto Pearson International Airport (don’t ask!), Canada; even COK – Cochin International Airport (also known as Kochi International Airport), Kochi, Kerala, India; they’re not so familiar.

I’ve been to all 13 cities that feature in Turbulence although two of them – Dakar and Kochi (Cochin) – I travelled to at surface level, I’ve not flown there. The other feature of the book is really nobody is having a good time, there are assorted disasters, relationships going wrong, some theft and financial problems, even minor appointment disruptions – a journalist flies all the way from Brazil to Canada (GRU-YYZ) only for the interview she turns up for to fall through.

In fact that’s pretty much par for the course for a David Szalay book. I seem to have been on a minor Szalay reading binge in recent weeks and it hasn’t been a happy experience. Flesh won the 2025 Booker Prize and friends who have also read it seem divided in liking or disliking it. Dwight Garner, who reviewed Flesh for the New York Times managed to fall into both camps – like and dislike. He concluded that books you can’t make your mind up about are sometimes ‘the ones you itch to read again. Sometimes once is more than enough.’

I was also indecisive about Flesh, uncertain if I liked or disliked it, although it was definitely very readable and you certainly came away with a mixture of exasperation and sorrow for its central character, Istvan. On the other hand I’m very clear about Szalay’s earlier book All That Man Is, shortlisted for the 2016 Booker Prize and some critics believe it should have won. Well I hated it! I cannot think of a book in recent years which I have disliked more, every chapter seemed to pile misery upon misery, you could come up with a hit list for who was the most gloomy, unhappy and disillusioned. No contest for me, Murray, mooching around in Croatia has the most thoroughly wretched time, although it’s a tough battle for the most dismal situation. Another version of Flesh’s hapless Istvan features in one chapter, a Hungarian heavy flown to London to act as bodyguard for a Hungarian prostitute lined up for a series of encounters with unpleasant customers in a Park Lane hotel. Another chapter that does not end happily.

▲ Hewa Bora Boeing 727 at Kisangani Airport (that’s FKI) in Congo DRC in 2011.

The aircraft on the cover of Turbulence is a Boeing 727, I’ve certainly made plenty of flights on 727s over the years although there are not many of them still flying. My last 727 flight was back in 2011 in Congo DRC, an uneventful flight from Kisangani – the town at V S Naipaul’s ‘bend in the river’ – to Goma, notable for its amazing volcano, opportunities to meet up with gorillas in the jungle and for general chaos. From Goma I walked across the border and continued into Rwanda, but 10 days after my Hewa Bora 727 flight the same aircraft crashed on landing at Kisangani, the worst airline disaster anywhere in the world in 2011.

If you’d like some real turbulence in the 2026 aviation world look no further than El Paso, Texas where on 9 February 2026 the airport and surrounding airspace was shut down because some crazy US government department decided to try shooting down ‘drug carrying Mexican drones’ with a fancy new laser weapon. Unfortunately the drones turned out to be a party balloon. Seems like every day the USA unleashes some new piece of Trump-inspired madness and that was what Taco Trump came up with for 9 February. Check the New York Times for Inside the Debacle That Led to the Closure of El Paso’s Airspace.