P’s greatest dream is to fly. He sets out to become a Ugandan fighter pilot, training in an academy in Greece. When the 1971 Idi Amin coup in his homeland disrupts his plans, he defects and becomes a man on the run. In this extraordinary novel based on his own father’s fate, Anyuru evokes P’s struggles in gorgeous, vivid prose. As a refugee, military-camp prisoner, and exile, P never gives up hope and continues to dream of life as a pilot. In a story told across two generations, P searches for identity and purpose in a world in which nowhere is home.
