The Last Pilot - Softcover

'Nostalgic and heart-rending... hypnotic. Not only has [Johncock] stripped his narrative down to sleek, aerodynamic paragraphs, but he tells much of this story in clipped dialogue that only suggests the pain swelling beneath the lines... the effect is supercharged Hemingway at 70,000 feet.' Washington Post; 'Reading Johncock one is reminded of Hemingway, Cormac McCarthy and especially of James Salter's The Hunters... a first-rate novel by a major new talent.' The Spectator; 'A big, muscular novel... tenderly undercut by the quite different theme of a marriage and a family under unbearable stress... convincing and moving.' Guardian; 'A taut domestic drama whose stringent prose evokes the emotional and physical landscape of a time and a place, this is a remarkably accomplished debut.' Mail on Sunday; 'His descriptive writing has a clean grace that recalls Cormac McCarthy... Johncock's story and characters take flight: this is a very promising debut.' New Statesman; 'In this riveting and beautifully written novel... Johncock brings fresh perspective and new energy to this old story ground.' Daily Mail; 'This clever fusion of fact and fiction, combined with a sparse writing style, is a Great American Novel - written by a Brit.' Times Higher Education; 'A remarkable achievement... lit by the fire of 1960s adventure, and also by the blazing beauty of a new literary star.' Boston Globe; '[In] this spare gem of a novel... Johncock is superb at crafting suspenseful scenes. A dramatic tale.' BBC Culture; 'Tightly told with searing uncomplicated prose, The Last Pilot is as engaging for its emotional gravitas as it is for its enthralling story of the race to space - I couldn't put it down.' Amazon: Best Books of the Month; 'The dialogue is clean and smooth and Johncock's spare prose gallops along at a fair pace.' Herald; 'Marvellous... Johncock seamlessly blends history and fiction, science and intimacy.' Sunday Express; 'One of the most authentic pieces of fiction set in America in years... a distinct and unique new voice in fiction.' Huffington Post; 'Johncock's characters are his real accomplishment. The author offers such emotional insight.' Big Issue; 'Providing a much-needed fix for those suffering from Mad Men withdrawal.' The National; 'An ideal read for history buffs and space race enthusiasts.' Kirkus; 'Ingeniously plotted, deftly written and engrossing.' People Magazine; 'A touching and fascinating tale of a man forced to choose between family and his place in the history books.' We Love This Book: Book of the Week; 'An impressive debut... a marvellous, emotionally powerful novel.' Publishers Weekly; 'A confident, engrossing debut novel with great warmth and a real sense of time and place. Great stuff.' A.L. Kennedy; 'By far the best debut novel I've read in years - it reads like the reclusive disciple of Cormac McCarthy and Saint-Exupery.' Joanne Harris; 'A hugely impressive piece of work. I loved it.' Ian Rankin; 'Benjamin Johncock is a writer of great craft and integrity. His dialogue is desert-dry, and his sentences crackle with the energy of things unsaid.' Jon McGregor; 'The writing is machine-cut and spare... like the pilots at this story's centre, Johncock has dared to reach for the stars.' DW Wilson; 'Told in language as beautifully spare - and unsparing - as a desert or a moonscape, The Last Pilot reminds us in powerful ways that the real unknown frontier still lies within the mysteries of the human heart.' Kim Edwards

With echoes of Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff and Richard Yates' Revolutionary Road, The Last Pilot re-ignites the thrill and excitement of the space race through the story of one man's courage in the face of unthinkable loss. Set against the backdrop of one of the most emotionally charged periods in American history, The Last Pilot begins in the bone-dry Mojave Desert during the late 1940s, where US Air Force test pilots are racing to break the sound barrier. Among the exalted few is Jim Harrison: dedicated to his wife, Grace, and their baby daughter. By the 1960s, the space race is underway and Harrison and his colleagues are offered a place in history as the world's first astronauts. But when his young family is thrown into crisis, Jim is faced with a decision that will affect the course of the rest of his life - whether to accept his ticket to the moon and at what cost.