The Flight of the Stork

by Jean-Christophe Grangé

Book Overview

At the invitation of the Swiss ornithologist, Max Boehm, a young French academic, Louis Antioch, agrees to undertake a journey tracing the flight of the stork in order to solve the mystery of the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1860467814
• ISBN13: 9781860467813
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Harvill Press
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Ridiculously far-fetched, yet strangely engrossing

Perpetual student, Louis Antioch, makes his move into the real-world by accepting a job with ornithologist Max Bohm, whereby he is to follow a flock of storks on there migratory path in order to determine why so many of them went missing the previous year. However, when Bohm is murdered before Antioch can even begin his job, Antioch instead teams up with a police detective to determine why Bohm was killed and what dark secrets are hidden in his mysterious past. Jean-Christophe Grange's first novel, "The Flight of the Storks", might not be as good as his subsequent novels, "Blood-Red Rivers" and "The Empire of the Wolves", but it is still a pretty good, albeit ridiculously far-fetched, story. The story initially appears to be a rip-off of "Coma" and I thought that I could see every plot-twist coming a mile off, but by the middle of the book, the story was twisting in ways that I could never imagine. As with Grange's other novels, this is a fast moving, and highly original novel. Every time I thought the story was slowing down, something new would happen to hold my interest. The book is bloody and many of the ideas involved are gruesome (but no more so than most modern crime thrillers), which may put off some readers, but if you have the stomach for this sort of thing, then it's well worth reading.

Phenomonally good

Hard to say what it was about this book that made it so compelling. Words like "dark" and "evil" spring to mind.I suspect that it was the writing, as much as the story, that gave the thing its power.I could be more articulate about this if the book were not so unlike anything else I've ever read. For complications, it's not up there with the Quincunx by Charles Palliser, but nonetheless, that's all that is coming to mind right now as a comparison. Blackwater by Kerstin Ekman? Maybe.If you like dark and deep, and you like it well written, read The Flight of the Storks.

Brilliant and addictive

Such an unusual read. First night I started I was bored. Why do I even bother how do stroks migrate? Come the second night, the writing style, some mysterious issues in the plot I was addicted. The more I read deeper I was captivated. Well I couldn't dare to share the story as it is so unexpected however it will suffice me to say that I read all of his other books after this one. All thumbs up!

Compulsive reading

The Flight of the Storks was the first book I ever tried to read in French. Despite the difficulties encountered with vocabulary and having to stop and check the dictionary frequently, the quality of the writing was such that I found it irresistible, and was carried along remorselessly by the storyline.Obviously those reading the English version will find it easier to tap into the wellspring of meticulously constructed suspense evocative background detail and rich imagination with which this book has been crafted. An unreserved thumbs up for this one!

Good and unusual thriller

The story starts with Louis Antioch's journey following the migration patterns of European storks. This task has been given to him by Max Bohm, who is found dead at the very start of the book. Soon this quest proves to be mysterious and very, very dangerous. One of the delights of the book is the descriptions of the various locales -- Switzerland, Slovania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Israel, Central African Republic and finally Calcutta. This descriptions show either very good research or personal knowledge. One warning is necessary for readers, at times, the book is quite gory, but never gratuitously so. When I read the book I immediately noticed the concise, rather chopping style that reminded me first of Hemingway, but then, of Camus. This should not be a surprising since Grange is French. Considering that this is Grange's first novel published in English, I am very impressed.