After Jerry Battle's wife Daisy died, it was Rita who rescued him and virtually brought up his two children. Yet it is Jerry alone who is baffled when Rita storms off, finding the title 'almost stepmother' somewhat feeble after two decades of devotion. In fact, for such a nice guy, Jerry can wreak an amazing amount of havoc. Now life is about to deal Jerry his toughest hand yet. With his ailing father yearning to flee his care centre and his son teetering on bankruptcy, Jerry's daughter is about to bestow on him a father's worst nightmare. Jerry Battle is Chang-rae Lee's most appealing and urbane of characters who, cruising aloft, is tugged back down to earth by this most compelling and unforgettable of human dramas.
'Beautifully written ... The author has a keen sense of the eerie confluence of beauty and vacuity in suburban America, especially when glimpsed from a safe distance'
Sunday Times
'It is Lee's inspired use of language that makes this novel
so unforgettably poignant and funny ... Chang-rae Lee
writes with a rare and knowing elegance ... Aloft is his
finest novel yet'
Literary Review