A woman strikes up a conversation with the man sitting next to her on a plane after some turbulence. He returns home to tragic news that also has impacted another stranger, a shaken pilot on his way to another continent who seeks comfort from a journalist he meets that night. Her life shifts subtly as well, before she heads to the airport on an assignment that will shift more lives in turn. In TURBULENCE, David Szalay’s diverse protagonists circumnavigate the planet in 12 flights en route to see lovers or estranged siblings, aging parents, baby grandchildren or nobody at all. Along the way, they change each other in one brief, electrifying interaction after the next.