ABSTRACT
Zinaida Lindén’s fictional short story “The Pilot’s Son” (translated by Eric Dickens) discusses questions of national and linguistic borders from the viewpoint of a flight attendant, Henrik Lappalainen, who keeps himself aloof from the rest of the cabin crew. The other main protagonist is an eight-year-old boy who joins the flight as an unaccompanied minor on his way to meet his American father. The boy is bilingual in Finnish and Russian but tries to hide his background, trying to come across as an American. During the long overseas flight, the flight attendant and the boy get to know each other, and their meeting changes the flight attendant’s views in a fundamental way on how to connect with people. “The Pilot’s Son” was originally published in Swedish in 2016 in Lindén’s collection of short stories Valenciana.
