The Flight Portfolio cover art

The Flight Portfolio

Preview

Try for $0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Flight Portfolio

Written by: Julie Orringer
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
Try for $0.00

$14.95 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $33.40

Buy Now for $33.40

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

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 $3,000 and a list of imperiled artists and writers he hoped to rescue within a few weeks. Instead, he ended up staying in France for 13 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 pause, this is historical fiction of the very first order, and resounding confirmation of Orringer's gifts as a novelist.

©2019 Julia Orringer (P)2019 Recorded Books
20th Century Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Military War Imperialism Refugee France Holocaust
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about The Flight Portfolio

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great read (but not all based on the facts)

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book. It is a blend of fiction and nonfiction (troublingly so for many reviewers) based on the life of Varian Fry. Fry worked tirelessly to help smuggle leading artists and intellectuals out of Vichy France during World War II. He helped people such as Marc Chagall, Hanna Arendt, Max Ernst, and about 2,000 others get to safety in America, often against the wishes of the American government. It raises the interesting question of whether one person's life is more valuable than another's. With limited funds, is it right to say we will give priority to saving someone who is brilliant and famous rather than someone unknown, who may have shown up at a refugee agency sooner?

Varian Fry was a closeted homosexual, and the story told by Julie Orringer weaves a relationship between him and another man into the storyline to carry the reader along. I'm not sure that was necessary. It made for entertaining reading, but I did feel that that part of the storyline ended too neatly. I wasn't overly surprised to discover that this part of the story was made up. Unfortunately, it did make me wonder how much of the rest was fictional. As someone who is also working on a book that will blend fact and fiction (because there are important chunks of my subject's life which cannot be documented), I was curious to see how she approached it. Ideally, I think, there should be a clarifying note to the reader at the start of the book rather than at the end. But, I suppose that would have taken away some of the suspense of the story, so I understand why she chose to put her note at the end.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Far too focused on irrelevant relationships

Like many listeners post-2022, I wanted to pick up this title after seeing the TV show that's based on it, and get some more background on an interesting bit of WW2 history I'd never heard of before.
Unlike the TV show, a substantial portion of the story is given over to a relationship between two of the characters - who happen to be men.
I assumed the fact that homosexuality was extremely taboo at the time should make this historically meaningful in some way, or at least interesting relevant to the plot - but many hours into the story, it just... doesn't. It's not objectionable, concerning, or obnoxious - it's just pointless, and overhadows so many more interesting characters and historical (or at semi-historical) events.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!