Monday, October 19, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Skylight Books, Los Angeles
A taut, emotionally gripping, and surprisingly funny novel about a father and daughter stranded in an airport at the end of the world. Ivan is a solitary man in his seventies, set in his ways and haunted by the failures of his past. His smart and cynical daughter, Nina, is in the twilight of her twenties and has long kept a distance from her sentimental father. But when Ivan proposes a trip to Europe in hopes that it will bring them closer together, Nina reluctantly agrees. They meet at LAX, where their departure is delayed. And delayed again. And again. As the hours drag on, their sharp, caustic and wide-ranging conversation reveals a lifetime of misunderstandings, unhealed wounds, and stubborn love. Soon more flights are canceled, security tightens, airport staff grow evasive, and it becomes clear to Ivan and Nina that something is wrong. They begin to suspect that they're being held prisoner--sequestered from the world without explanation. At last, the surreal starts to overtake the mundane, and their need to escape--and to protect each other--turns increasingly urgent. What begins as a piercing portrait of a father and daughter becomes a novel of eerie suspense, as Nina and Ivan navigate not only their fractured bond but also a world teetering on the brink of collapse. A story of loving across gaps--between parent and child, between things said and unsaid--and about what happens when the outside world finally mirrors the chaos within, Passengers is Maksik's most timely and accomplished novel yet. Alexander Maksik is the author of You Deserve Nothing, a New York Times and IndieBound bestseller; A Marker to Measure Drift, which was a New York Times Notable Book, as well as a finalist for the William Saroyan Prize and Le Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, and the basis of the 2023 motion picture Drift; Shelter in Place, named one of the best books of the year by the Guardian and the San Francisco Chronicle; and The Long Corner, a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, and named one of the best books of the year by The Australian. Maksik is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize and The Sewanee Review’s Andrew Lytle Prize. His books have been translated into a dozen languages.