The Balloonist

In 1976 Farrar Strauss published the 5th novel by an American writer who had been gathering momentum on both sides of the Atlantic. It was both an intense love story and a Jules Verne-type science fiction adventure, centered on an attempt by a Swedish scientist, an American journalist and a French speaking adventurer to become the first people to set foot on the North Pole. To arrive there and return, borne on the wind by a huge red and white hydrogen balloon.

The book was a critical sensat...