Leaving Earth by Helen Humphreys

This past Saturday, we discussed the novels of Helen Humphreys, and this particular novel sounded intriguing to me, so I borrowed it from Ann. It is based on true events in Toronto in the 30s, more specifically, two women aviators circling the City of Toronto non-stop for 19 days, trying to break an endurance record. On the ground, a 12-year-old girl named Maddy is fascinated with Grace, one of the two women fliers, and even believes that Grace is her mother, not too hard a stretch because her actual mother doesn't appear to care for her. Maddy's family is Jewish, and are persecuted by Nazi sympathizers in the city- I remember reading about this in another novel based in Toronto entitled The Stubborn Season by Laurie Davis. Grace is married to Jack, another aviator who has set a record for endurance flying, and Grace has set off to break this record. Jack, who flies up every eight hours to refuel the two-seater Moth and to bring food, is quite jealous of his wife's attempt, and does everything he can to sabotage the women's efforts.

Humphreys' novels are easy to read, but have a lot of food for thought. This one was my second favorite of them, the first favorite of course being The Lost Garden.