As we struggle with new anxieties, the New York Times bestselling author of The Library Book tackles an old fear in this insightful and hypnotizingly funny essay about taking off and letting go. Susan Orlean has a full-on phobia of flying—an epic inconvenience for an author on a national book tour. With her trademark curiosity, she decides to rewire her thinking through hypnosis. Along the way, Susan discovers a lot about the unconscious mind, suggestibility, Mesmer, Freud, today’s cutting-edge treatments, and the dulling power of a sonorous voice. Most of all, she learns what it takes to close her eyes, open them again at thirty thousand feet, and finally be able to exhale. And you can too.

Publication Year: 2021