The Flying African follows the journey of an unnamed traveler, a young Armenian writer who spends fifty-four adventurous days in Africa, one day in each of the continent's countries. Fifty-four chapters provide vignettes of the visits to each country, in which the traveler experiences the beauty of the land and the complexity of the people, as well the continent's darker side: the on-going effects of colonization, war, poverty, and disease. While it is impossible to understand the whole of Africa or even one country in a short visit, each chapter provides a snapshot of something significant about the country visited, grounded in its own history, culture, and customs.
The traveler's progress is episodic and surreal, and at times he becomes dissociated and unsure of even where he is or what he is observing. He experiences some of the typical aspects of travel-seeing ancient mosques and other interesting architecture, visiting markets and trying new foods, and meeting both natives and other travelers, but the real journey is a psychological and emotional one. The geographic adventure of travel takes a back seat to the psychic adventure of unmooring oneself from the familiarity of home and reaching out to the unknown. Even as the narrator struggles to make sense of the sometimes magical and fantastic stories told to him, as well as his own disorienting experiences, he is still greatly affected by witnessing the human condition and has flashes of insight illuminating the human psyche's capacity for growth, pain, and resilience.
Ultimately, the traveler, and the reader along with him, takes a complex journey of letting go of expectations and opening up to the profound effects of encountering what is both familiar and foreign.
