The Prince of the Skies by Antonio Iturbe

Only the best pilots are given jobs at Latécoère – the company destined to become Aéropostale. The
successful candidates include Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. A man whose desire to fly will put him at odds
with his aristocratic family and the girl who loves him – but who wants to keep him grounded. Together
with his friends Jean and Henri, they will change the history of aviation and pioneer new mail routes
across the world. But Antoine is also destined to touch the lives of millions of readers with his story The
Little Prince.
But as war begins to threaten Europe, is Antoine’s greatest adventure yet to come . . .?
Translated by Lilit Žekulin Thwaites, this is a novel about love and friendship, war and heroism and
the power of the written word.

Review

One of the things I loved about The Prince of The Skies was the gentle flow of the writing! The story is an adventure in the skies and the authors writing style matches that sense of wonder you get when flying above the clouds, you feel such awe, such wonder at the bravery of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Jean and Henri. You do feel that you’re flying through the skies with them, over mountains, across deserts and into some of the worlds most dangerous terrain. Antonio Iturbe’s writing makes the reader feel the wonder these early pioneers felt when they took to the sky, their quiet bravery matches perfectly the writing style.

He made me admire them, what to fly through the sky with them, experience the thrill of opening up the first routes that joined so many parts of the world for the first time. I wanted to spend time with these three quiet men, I admired their reserved natures when flying, yet at the same time he opened up the passionate nature that lay just under the surface. He shows us that they almost seem out of place on land, awkward, never really fitting in, yet once they take off, not only does the world open up underneath them, but so do they! Its not all about the story in the air though, yet this is where they seem most alive. He takes us into the lives they live beyond the comradery in the air, into the other passions which controlled them, for Antoine it was writing and we see how this quite remarkable man wrote a classic tale that is as loved today as it was when first published.

You can feel the research that has been undertaken to make this story as accurate as possible, but that is never allowed to overshadow the magical nature of the tale itself. He fills his tale with their exploits and their lives beyond the skies! He reflects with perfect clarity how their obsession with getting the mail from one continent to another sometimes drained them, affected their relationships with others, who often seemed to stand on the edge, supporting these pioneers of the air. We see their passion, their faults, the way they battle both the environment and their own conflicting emotions. He made the man behind The Little Prince feel real, rounded, in all his quiet passionate glory. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was more than just the author of The Prince Of The Skies, he and the men he new and loved, were explorers. They loved and were loved and yet, they are almost forgotton, shadows in history, until now.

By weaving all this into a story about adventure and risk taking, he delivers a tale about a group of remarkable men, their lives and passions.

You can buy this novel from Amazon and Waterstones, as well as you’re local independent bookshop.

About the author

ANTONIO ITURBE was born in 1967 and grew up in the dock-side neighbourhood of Barceloneta, in Barcelona. His first novel The Librarian of Auschwitz was the number one selling book in translation in the UK last year. It
has been translated into 30 languages and has sold over 600K copies internationally. Having grown up reading Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s books, Iturbe was inspired to write about the author’s extraordinary life. He conducted extensive research and, despite suffering from vertigo, even flew in a biplane so he would understand how it felt to fly. Iturbe hopes to translate not only the facts but also the poetry of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s writing in The Prince of the Skies.