Flight of the Albatross

Will with the author, Deborah Savage

Flight of the albatross was one of my favourite books growing up. My favourite is coming-of-age stories. It was a book written in the 1980s by American author Deborah Savage.

Earlier last year, I thought about the Flight of the albatross book. So I decided to google search Deborah Savage and found she lives in a town near the University of Massachusetts Amherst. So we decided to catch up when I went to Amherst in December.

A bit about the book: it's about two young people, Sarah and Mako. Sarah is from New York City and travelled to Aotearoa to visit her scientist mother. She meets Mako, who is Māori, and they both navigate a shared adventure with challenges on Kauri island, where the book is based. A movie came out in 1995, which can be watched on the New Zealand Film on Demand website, which I highly recommend.

It was nice to catch up with Deborah. She talked about her time coming to Aotearoa New Zealand, in her early 20s. Deborah lived there for a short time and wrote several other novels. In our dinner catch-up, she spoke about her accomplishments and the challenges she navigated.

Deborah last came back to Aotearoa in 1995. I asked her if she wished to go back. She said she would love to, but some physical challenges would make it hard for her to return.

I hope she has the chance to go back.

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