Leaving Earth: A Novel

On August 1, 1933, two young women, the famous aviatrix Grace O'Gorman and the inexperienced Willa Briggs, take off in a tiny Moth biplane to break the world flight endurance record. Their plan: to circle above the city of Toronto for twenty-five days.
So begins Leaving Earth, a remarkable evocation of an era when women sought to escape the limitations of their sex by embarking on perilous adventures. Sponsored by the Adventure Girl Almanac, "Air Ace Grace" and Willa soar above the city while below the Depression takes its toll and the shadows of the coming war lengthen. It falls to Jack, Grace's jealous husband and a record-holding pilot in his own right, to supply the women with food and midair refueling.
As the everyday rituals that tether Willa and Grace to humanity fall away, the intense connection between the women becomes as gripping as the perils that besiege them. All the while, the endurance test wears on, its outcome jeopardized by fatigue, weather, mechanical breakdown, and the malicious efforts of a saboteur.