Wind, Sand and Stars

Both a gripping tale of adventure and a poetic meditation, Antoine de Saint Exup¿''s Wind, Sand and Stars is the lyrical autobiography of an aviation pioneer, from the author of The Little Prince. This Penguin Modern Classics edition is translated from the French with an introduction by William Rees.

In 1926 de Saint-Exup¿ began flying for the pioneering airline Lat¿¿ - later known as A¿postale - opening up the first mail routes across the Sahara and the Andes. Wind, Sand and Stars is drawn from this experience. Interweaving encounters with nomadic Arabs and other adventures into a richly textured autobiographical narrative, it has its climax in the extraordinary story of Saint-Exup¿''s crash in the Libyan Desert in 1936, and his miraculous survival. ''Self-discovery comes when a man measures himself against an obstacle,'' writes Saint-Exup¿. This book explores the transcendent perceptions that arise when life is tested to its limits.

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