1980s a-wild-sheep-chase absurd absurdism absurdist absurdity adventure adventures africa african-safari airplanes alienation alternate-reality alternative-reality animals atmospheric author autobiography aviation aviator biographical biography boarding-school bravery british british-author british-empire british-literature chase childhood childhood-dreams childhood-memories colonialism coming-of-age consciousness conspiracy contemporary contemporary-fiction contemporary-literature courage creativity cult-classic dark-comedy dark-humor destiny detective detective-fiction detective-story determination dream-like dreamlike dreams dystopia dystopian east-africa eccentric eccentric-characters england enigma enigmatic escapades escape existential existentialism exploration family fantasy fate fiction fighter-pilot fighter-planes flying flying-ace folklore friendship friendships going-solo greece haruki-murakami heroism historical humor humorous identity identity-crisis imagination independence independent individuality introspection introspective isolation japan japanese-culture japanese-literature journey kenya literary literary-fiction literature literature-in-translation london loneliness loss love love-story magic-realism magical-realism mediterranean memoir metaphysical metaphysics middle-east military military-service mind-bending mischief modern modern-classic modern-fiction modern-literature murakami mysterious mystery mythology non-fiction nonfiction norway norwegian nostalgia novel obsession parallel-universe parallel-worlds perseverance personal-growth philosophical philosophy pilot pilots planes pop-culture postmodern postmodernism psychological quest quirky raf raf-pilot reality resilience roald-dahl romance royal-air-force safari second-world-war self-discovery sheep sheep-man social-commentary solitude solo spies spirituality spitfire spy storytelling success sudan supernatural surreal surrealism survival suspense symbolic symbolism tanganyika tanzania thriller tokyo tragedy transformation travel triumph true-story unconventional urban urban-fantasy war war-experiences war-memoir war-stories wartime wartime-experiences world-war-ii writer writing young-adult youth