Turbulence – Szalay David (2020)

A successful businessman from Senegal, a Hong Kong housewife, a German cargo pilot, an Indian gardener at a luxury residence in Qatar, or the mother of an adult Englishman undergoing treatment for prostate cancer. Twelve people on board twelve different long-haul flights will circle the globe in just a few dozen hours. The relay of their short stories, interconnected by characters that only flicker in one episode and then play a central role in the next, serves as a poignant metaphor for the state of today's world and interpersonal relationships: while we can easily bridge the thousand-kilometer distances between continents thanks to powerful airplanes and modern communication tools, it does little to help us overcome barriers between cultures, between generations, barriers that often arise even among the closest of people. Each of the twelve chapters, succinctly titled after the flight designation (LGW — MAD, MAD — DSS, etc.), brings not only a change of scenery and a different narrative style but, above all, a new perspective: a woman who pays her employee 'about a hundred dollars a month' for his daily twelve-hour toil in the garden turns out to be a caring, loving mother. However, Szalay...