At the Edge of Heaven

Gerald Hennessy and his friends are flying to his parents' farm to celebrate his fourteenth birthday, but the pilot of their plane dies mid-air. Gerald takes control - he is the only one who has ever sat at the controls.... However, he has only flown alongside his father, never set a course or landed on his own. In the cramped cabin of the "Heron," a true drama unfolds: Gerald realizes that every move he makes, every decision he takes could be fatal.
The author immerses the reader in the thoughts and feelings of the characters, making them feel all the horrific details of what is happening on the plane. Serious trials force the children to grow up quickly, the characters discover new qualities within themselves and by the end of the book, they have become different.
The novella "At the Edge of Heaven," published in 1967, was the third in what Southall called the "elements trilogy" - water, fire, and air. In the first book, "On the Hills" (Hills End, 1962), a group of children faces the elements in a town cut off from the world by a hurricane and flooding. In the second, "The Road of Fire" (Ash Road, 1965), the young heroes come face to face with a terrible forest fire. And in "At the Edge of Heaven," the ethereal nature of air is beautifully conveyed.