Acknowledgments
My immeasurable gratitude to:
My editor at St. Martin’s, Hilary Rubin Teeman, who apparently was born with better judgment and a keener sense of how a story should be told than anyone on the planet. I can’t thank her enough for taking a chance on this book, and for putting in so much time while her sweet new little one was on his way into the world. And her assistant, Alicia Clancy, who clearly knows how to steer the ship.
My agent, Brettne Bloom, whose faith in early drafts can’t have been anything but that: faith. This novel wouldn’t have found its ideal reader (or a worthy title!) without her tireless efforts.
Willing readers and dear friends, for their counsel and care with a mercurial manuscript: Eric Rosenblum, who has been an ideal confidant and friend. For reads early and late, and for all their support: Rebecca Curtis, Deena Drewis, Laura Farmer, Miciah Bay Gault, Cordelia Jensen, Adam Levin, Adrienne Miller, Hilary Plum, Lauren Goodwin Slaughter, Daniel Smith, and Thomas Yagoda. Tyler Cabot and Genevieve Roth have provided friendship and advice over the years.
My mentors, the first among them George Saunders, whose generosity, time, and wisdom is more than a person should receive in a lifetime—I owe every good decision I’ve made to his advice, his example, and the hospitality he and Paula have offered. And all the writers at the Syracuse MFA program: Arthur Flowers, Mary Gaitskill, Amy Hempel, Mary Caponegro, Brooks Haxton, Bruce Smith, Mary Karr, Michael Burkhard, Sarah Harwell, David Yaffe, and Terri Zollo.
The English Department at Syracuse University, which made possible travel to the Czech Republic, Holland, Germany, and England. The team at the Jewish Book Council have provided support, as have the people at the Foundation for Jewish Culture. Lunches in Midtown with JBC director Carolyn Hessel have been a joy and an education. The people at the Samuel Johnson House in central London offered access and information.
My colleagues and students in Bryn Mawr College’s Creative Writing Program. Karl Kirchwey has given me opportunity, mentorship, friendship—and a read of this novel. Karen Russell has blessed me with support, friendship, and the generosity of her prodigious talent and mind. Robin Black has offered now years of her time and wisdom. Bryn Mawr’s English Department, Arts Program, and the college’s president, Kim Cassidy, have provided collegiality, encouragement, and creative support. Lisa Saltzman, in the college’s History of Art Department, lent advice on Schiele and his milieu. Kate Thomas grew up in Kent, and she provided invaluable details about the UK in the forties—with an assist from her parents, Michael and Elizabeth Thomas.
The relatives in my diaspora family, who made trips to Europe feel like trips home: Bibi and Charles Hope opened their homes in both England and France to me. John and Reni Carson gave a room in their home in Dominica, and shared stories of London in the forties. Thanks also to their daughter, Ann Tempier. My aunt, Kathy Bristow, made all the introductions. My Hungarian grandparents, Steven and Maria Torday, and my father’s Aunt Traute Reiss, all of whom passed before they could read this book.
My cousin Honza North, who lent me the hospitality of a room in London, and whose generosity with stories of his experiences during the war in Czechoslovakia, Holland, the UK, and Rhodesia offered me a glimpse into an experience I didn’t know existed. Without his inspiration this novel would never have materialized. I’d give any number of my days to fulfill the wish that he hadn’t passed before I could show him this book.
My parents, John and Barbara Torday, who have never shown a second of doubt that it was reasonable to want to give the better part of a decade over to writing a novel. And Nicole Torday, who has always been a loving sister and aunt.
Finally, where it starts and ends: my wife, Erin, and our beautiful daughters, Abigail and Delia. It’s always for you, and always and only because of your love and support.
About the Author
DANIEL TORDAY is the Director of Creative Writing at Bryn Mawr College. An author and a former editor at Esquire magazine, Torday currently serves as an editor at The Kenyon Review. His short stories and essays have appeared in Esquire, Glimmer Train, Harper Perennial’s Fifty-two Stories, Harvard Review, The New York Times, and The Kenyon Review. Torday’s novella, The Sensualist, won the 2012 National Jewish Book Award for debut fiction. Visit him online at www.danieltorday.com. You can sign up for email updates here.
ALSO BY DANIEL TORDAY
The Sensualist (a novella)
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
Acknowledgment: Prologue
Act One (Skylock: The Memoir of a Jewish RAF Bomber)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Acknowledgment: First Interlude
Act Two (Skylock)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Acknowledgment: Second Interlude
Act Three (Skylock)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Acknowledgment: Caesura
Act Four (Skylock)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Acknowledgment: Final Interlude
Act Five (Skylock)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Daniel Torday
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE LAST FLIGHT OF POXL WEST. Copyright © 2015 by Daniel Torday. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover design by Olga Grlic
Cover silhouette of city © JKTU_21/Shutterstock.com
eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Torday, Daniel.
The last flight of Poxl West: a novel / Daniel Torday.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-250-05168-4 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-7181-6 (e-book)
1. World War, 1939–1945—Veterans—Fiction. 2. Families—Fiction. 3. Loss (Psychology)—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3620.O58747L37 2015
813'.6—dc23 2014036360
e-ISBN 9781466871816
First Edition: March 2015
The Last Flight of Poxl West Page 26