Night Flight

This short novel follows the early days of night airmail in South America. Rivière, the stern director of an air company, insists that the mail must fly even in darkness and dangerous weather, and he asks much of his pilots. One pilot, Fabien, flies into a gathering storm while his wife waits at home and the ground staff follow his radio signals. The book weighs duty against personal feeling, and the cost of progress against human lives. It is compact, tense and one of the defining works of aviation literature.