Solo

A “spellbinding” memoir about the author’s passion for flying, including his stint as a combat pilot in Vietnam (Tim O’Brien, bestselling author of The Things They Carried).

When Clyde Edgerton was four years old, his mother took him to the local airport to see the planes. For the boy, it was love at first sight. Eighteen years later, she would take him to the same airport to catch a flight to Texas for Air Force pilot training.

Edgerton tells the story of his lifelong love affair with flying, from his childlike wonder to his job as a fighter pilot flying reconnaissance over the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Now, decades after the Vietnam War, he looks back at his youthful passion for flying, at the joy he took in mastering it, at the exhilaration—and lingering anguish—of combat aviation. It is a story that will resonate with every pilot who remembers their first takeoff, first landing, and first solo flight, or any passenger who has marveled at a journey through the sky—Solo offers a “heartfelt celebration of the flying life” (The New York Times).

“Spellbinding, exciting, funny, informative, moving, and beautifully, beautifully, beautifully written.” —Tim O’Brien