On a windy spring morning in an ancient Cretan village, Rory MacLean fell to earth. His mother had died a few months earlier and a single obsession had risen from his grief: the notion to build a feather-light flying machine. And so, on the island where Daedalus and Icarus had made mankind's maiden flight, MacLean journeyed back to beginnings, back into the Greek myths, and - with the help of his Cretan neighbours and plenty of wine - built a plane and tried to fly. "Falling for Icarus" is at once a meditation on love, a celebration of the passion for flight and an hilarious, vivid portrait of a village. Its generous and exhilarating characters - Yioryio, the irrepressible cafe owner, dreamy, dying Aphrodite and divine Apostoli, would-be pilot and Greek god in a golden flying suit - restore MacLean's faith in life. Through them, he tells a soaring, moving story about how a dream can transform sadness.
- ISBN10 1848859562
- ISBN13 9781848859562
- Publish Date 30 October 2011 (first published 29 April 2004)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 11 March 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Imprint Barbara Ward & Associates
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 352
- Language English