The Flight Portfolio

Praise

“A gripping, tender novel.” —The New Yorker

“Magnificent . . . a deeply researched, almost unbearably tense, bruised-knuckle hybrid. Part real history and part love story, it’s also a deeply moral work, asking tough questions about what matters most to us personally—and to the world.” —The Boston Globe

“Sympathetic and prodigiously ambitious. . . . [Orringer’s] Marseille breathes as a city breathes.” —Cynthia Ozick, The New York Times Book Review

“Gorgeous. . . . Classic storytelling through a transgressive lens. The Flight Portfolio offers a testament to . . . the enduring transformative power of art, and love, in any form.” —Entertainment Weekly

“Extraordinary. . . . Orringer has delivered a story with a splendid cast of characters and an intoxicating portrait of a time and place. . . . There’s suspense and tragedy, unexpected twists and deliverance.” —The Seattle Times
 
“Passionate and thoroughgoing. . . . [The Flight Portfolio] brings to light a truly inspiring episode in history.” —The Wall Street Journal
 
“Varian Fry lit a small, bright lamp in a world of darkness, and in the deft hands of Julie Orringer—under the spell of her masterful prose, her feeling portraiture, her classic spy-thriller plotting, and her vivid re-creation of that beautiful and terrible world—I found the radiance of Fry’s courage, flawed humanity, and steadfast resistance shedding an inexhaustible light on our own ever-darkening time.” —Michael Chabon, author of Moonglow
 
“The novel seeks a kind of redress: restoring, to history’s vast panorama, a granular sense of how life on the borderlines of fascism feels . . . Orringer’s true subject, the moral peril of being alive, is a grandly timeless—and timely—one.” —T Magazine
 
“Magnificent. . . . Brilliantly conceived, impeccably crafted, and showcasing Orringer’s extraordinary gifts, this is destined to become a classic.” —Publishers Weekly(starred review)
 
“The novel exudes atmosphere. . . . Through cinematically detailed descriptions [and] multilayered, nuanced characters both real and imagined, Orringer has breathed life into 1940 France. . . . The Flight Portfoliocompellingly juxtaposes the conflicts and tragedies of a world at war with the equally compelling inner wars of the human soul.” —Pittsburg Post-Gazette
 
“Meticulous, bighearted, gorgeous, historical, suspenseful, everything you want a novel to be.” —Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Less
 
“Altogether satisfying. . . . An accomplished storyteller at work.” —Kirkus Reviews(starred review)
 
“Thoughtful and absorbing. . . . Orringer is a meticulous researcher, and the novel’s cloak-and-dagger thrills keep the pace lively.” —BookPage
 
“Superb. . . . [The Flight Portfolio] will both warm and break your heart.” —Business Insider