The Flight Portfolio

Julie Orringer

May 2019 · RB Media · Narrated by Edoardo Ballerini

About this audiobook

The long-awaited new work from the best-selling author of The Invisible Bridge takes us back to occupied Europe in this gripping historical novel based on the true story of Varian Fry's extraordinary attempt to save the work, and the lives, of Jewish artists fleeing the Holocaust In 1940, Varian Fry--a Harvard educated American journalist--traveled to Marseille carrying three thousand dollars and a list of imperiled artists and writers he hoped to rescue within a few weeks. Instead, he ended up staying in France for thirteen months, working under the veil of a legitimate relief organization to procure false documents, amass emergency funds, and set up an underground railroad that led over the Pyrenees, into Spain, and finally to Lisbon, where the refugees embarked for safer ports. Among his many clients were Hannah Arendt, Franz Werfel, Andre Breton, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, and Marc Chagall. The Flight Portfolio opens at the Chagalls' ancient stone house in Gordes, France, as the novel's hero desperately tries to persuade them of the barbarism and tragedy descending on Europe. Masterfully crafted, exquisitely written, impossible to put down, this is historical fiction of the very first order, and resounding confirmation of Orringer's gifts as a novelist.

About the author

Julie Orringer was born in Miami, Florida on June 12, 1973. She is a graduate of Cornell University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her books include the short-story collection How to Breathe Underwater: Stories (2003) and the novel The Invisible Bridge (2010). Her stories have appeared in numerous publications including The Paris Review, McSweeney's, Ploughshares, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, and The Best New American Voices. She received the Paris Review's Discovery Prize and two Pushcart Prizes.