THE ANGLE QUICKEST FOR FLIGHT, by Steven Kotler

"The Angle Quickest for Flight is a romp, a New Age multicultural thriller.… The dialogue is clipped, cool, and modern.… Undoubtedly we will be reading more from Kotler in the future." — San Francisco Chronicle

"A brilliant first novel! Steven Kotler's The Angle Quickest for Flight takes wing confidently with its crew of erratic, questing, dangerful spirits and then flies and flies." — John Barth

"What book lover can resist a story about book thieves? Along the way, Kotler dips into enough esoterica to keep a curious reader intrigued, and the dialogue is always witty and cool." — Publishers Weekly

"This is no territory for the timid. Kotler prefers to show us something like mysticism's Mafia, a lot of heavy-smoking, hard-drinking tough guys and gals, too cool for complete sentences." — Locus

In Steven Kotler's debut novel the only thing more dangerous than going after what you want may be actually getting it.

At once a story of adventure, ambition, and the pursuit of ultimate knowledge, The Angle Quickest for Flight is a globe-trotting quest narrative with all the mythic implications of the pursuit of the Holy Grail — but with a modern, edgy sense of style. Kotler swerves from the intricacies of Cantor's theories, to the mythologies of archaic religions, to the art of rock climbing and spelunking, to the cadences of the blues, in a torrent of breathless, exquisite prose.

At the heart of the story is a boy — -a runaway. He is recruited to help recover an ancient Kabbalist tome by Peña, a woman rumored to be the final descendent of Ghengis Khan. The Sefer ha-Zaviot is shrouded in mystery and centuries of speculation-it is reputed to contain a map of a shortcut to heaven. It's been hidden since Ferdinand and Isabella tithed it to the pope in the fifteenth century, along with other stolen Jewish treasures, and it's remained in the bowels of the Vatican ever since.

The quest begins in Mexico with the runaway Angel confronting another seeker of the Sefer, Padre Isosceles. Padre Isosceles turns out to be a murderous sociopath who threatens to undermine the search from the beginning. Angel flees to the States where he meets up with Coyote Blú, a career smuggler who has pledged his support. Together with the inscrutable Father Yohji Amo, the quartet sets out for Rome. Along the way they are in league with a soul-searching albino Rastafarian named Gabrial; Christian, a beautiful double-agent of sorts; and an enigma called Johnni, who is searching for the 65th hexagram of the I Ching. Each marches to a very peculiar beat and either enlists in the search or ends up sidetracked by journeys more personal.

Eventually the group splinters, leaving Coyote, Gabrial, Angel, and Father Amo to penetrate the depths of the Vatican, or die trying. And Padre Isosceles lies in wait, should they emerge.

Steven Kotler was born in 1967 and lives in Los Angeles. He is writer-at-large for GQ, and his nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Maxim, National Geographic, Details, Wired, Outside, and Travel & Leisure.

Order this featured book
online at a discount from

Website design by JERRY ENGELBACH