WIND, SAND AND STARS
Antoine de Saint Exupery

An existential adventure classic based on the author’s semi-autobiographical escapades in the early days of commercial aviation. This included flying mail across the dreaded Terres des Hommes (the Western Sahara) where you saved the last bullet for yourself. It features the almost obligatory near-death experience after crashing in the Libyan Desert. Along with Thesiger and possibly Monod (as yet untranslated in English), Exupery remains one of the few writers who adequately describes the enigma of the desert’s appeal. Heroic and philosophically poetic Man’s Stuff: Hemingway with propellers and one of the best you’ll read to capture the spirit of the desert.

To be reviewed one of these years: The Citadel – St Ex’s posthumous oeuvre.