Wind, Sand and Stars

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the French aviator and writer, published this memoir in France in February 1939 under the title Terre des hommes. Drawn from his flying over Europe, Africa and South America, it deals with friendship, death, heroism, solidarity among colleagues and the search for meaning. Its central episode is his 1935 crash in the Sahara between Benghazi and Cairo, after which he and his mechanic-navigator André Prévot nearly died of thirst before a Bedouin on a camel rescued them. Lewis Galantière's English translation appeared the same year, and the two versions differ, because the author cut sections and wrote new material for American readers. The charity Terre des hommes later took its name from the book.

Patrick Collison lists it on his Bookshelf page.