Visible Empire

Name: Visible Empire
Brand: Recorded Books
Availability: InStock
Author: Hannah Pittard
ISBN: 9781501987274

Author: Hannah Pittard

Narrator: Robin Miles

Unabridged: 9 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 06/05/2018

Categories: Fiction, Literary Fiction

Synopsis

An epic novel—based on true events—of love, grief, race, and wealth, charting a single sweltering summer in Atlanta that left no one unchanged On a humid summer day, the phones begin to ring: disaster has struck. Chateau de Sully, a Boeing 707 chartered to ferry home more than one hundred of Atlanta’s most prominent citizens from a European jaunt, crashed in Paris shortly after takeoff. It is the second-deadliest disaster in the history of aviation. Overnight, the city of Atlanta changes. Left behind are children, spouses, lovers, and friends faced with renegotiating their lives. Robert, a newspaper editor, must decide if he can reconnect with his beloved but estranged wife, whose swindler parents have left her penniless. Nineteen-year-old Piedmont Dobbs, recently denied admission to an integrated school, senses a moment of uncertain opportunity. And Mayor Ivan Allen is tasked with the job of moving Atlanta forward—the hedonism of the '60s and the urgency of the civil rights movement at his city’s doorstep. Visible Empire is the story of a husband and wife who can’t begin to understand each other until chaos drives them to clarity. It’s a story of the promise and hope that remain in the wake of crisis. "Pittard's novel combines a sense of personal loss and turmoil with greater societal change as the civil rights movement arrives at its peak."—New York Times Book Review

About Hannah Pittard

HANNAH PITTARD was born in Atlanta. She is the author of four novels, including Listen to Me and The Fates Will Find Their Way. Her work has appeared in the Sewanee Review, the New York Times, and other publications. She is a professor of English at the University of Kentucky, where she directs the MFA program in creative writing.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jill

Visible Empire had a lot of initial promise. Based on reality, an Air France charter flight, filled with some of Atlanta’s most prestigious art lovers and patrons, crashed upon take-off in Paris in the early 1960s. Families and friends were devastated and children were left orphans. In the meantime,......more

Goodreads review by Kari Ann

Loved the cover, loved the description, didn't love the book. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ While I could totally enjoy this novel as a mini-series, it didn't work for me as a novel. It had a lot of promise- historical fiction based on a plane crash in 1962 and the survivors back home in Atlanta who are left to pick up th......more

Goodreads review by Sarah

Thank you to Doubleday and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book. I know many people have mixed feelings about fiction based on real life events, but I’m a fan! In Visible Empire, the Orly plane crash is the big event that ties lots of disparate people and perspectives together (and the opening......more

Goodreads review by Sharon

A story about the 1962 air line crash in Paris. All were lost on the trip back to the U.S. These were the art loving people of Atlanta. One of the families affected by the loss of family and friends; was Robert and Lily, they saw their future disappear. Lily was at home, expecting a baby soon. The tr......more

Goodreads review by Linda

I am a little flummoxed about how to review this book. Was it about race relations in Atlanta, or was it about a plane crash in France where 100 or more of the wealthiest citizens of Atlanta perished, or was it about infidelity, or was it about interracial romance, or was it about suddenly rich surv......more