5 out of 5 stars
Love, Loss, and Flight
Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2025
Brimming with symbolic encounters, The Pilot by Anahit Arustamyan offers a spiritual narrative built on the foundations of exile, grief, and transcendence.
At its heart is Nare, a young Armenian woman whose farewell at Zvartnots International Airport - “John shot a few pictures of Nare's dark and deep eyes… The iron crane disappeared in the sky” - sets the tone for a story where airplanes become symbols of hope over loss, poverty, and longing.
Nare meets an old man leaving for Madrid, his tears “like rain drips sticking in the deep wrinkles of his cheeks,” and Lucine, a mother burdened by exile and memory. Her interactions with Pierre, the French pilot, a figure who helps her confront her grief, her dreams, and “wounded bear cub” of sorrow she carries, add poignancy to the novel’s surreal, spiritual texture. For instance, Nare believes she flies with Pierre to Paris, only to realize later it was a dream: “Only her flight was unreal. It was her crazy fantasy, which appeared in her dream.”
Arustamyan’s metaphorical prose echoes like poetry: “The airports reminded her of the longest veins all over the world’s body. The travellers seemed to be small and big rivers, flowing through those veins.
If you, as I do, enjoy poetic storytelling with philosophical depth, you will adore The Pilot.
