The classic memoir of Africa, aviation, and
adventure—the inspiration for Paula McLain’s Circling
the Sun and “a bloody wonderful book” (Ernest
Hemingway).
 Beryl Markham’s life story is a
true epic. Not only did she set records and break barriers as a pilot,
she shattered societal expectations, threw herself into torrid love
affairs, survived desperate crash landings—and chronicled
everything. A contemporary of Karen Blixen (better known as Isak
Dinesen, the author of Out of Africa), Markham left an enduring
memoir that soars with astounding candor and shimmering insights.

 
A rebel from a young age, the British-born Markham was
raised in Kenya’s unforgiving farmlands. She trained as a bush
pilot at a time when most Africans had never seen a plane. In 1936, she
accepted the ultimate challenge: to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean
from east to west, a feat that fellow female aviator Amelia Earhart had
completed in reverse just a few years before. Markham’s successes
and her failures—and her deep, lifelong love of the “soul
of Africa”—are all told here with wrenching honesty and
agile wit.
 
Hailed as “one of the greatest
adventure books of all time” by Newsweek and “the
sort of book that makes you think human beings can do anything”
by the New York Times, West with the Night remains a powerful
testament to one of the iconic lives of the twentieth century.