The Paris Express
A Novel
On Sale: 03/18/2025
The Paris Express
A Novel
On Sale: 03/18/2025
Format:
About the Book
From Emma Donoghue, author of Room, The Wonder and Pull of the Stars comes a taut and suspenseful historical novel that reimagines an 1895 French railway disaster, an event famously documented in dramatic photographs
Set over a single day, as the morning train travels from the Normandy coast to Paris, men, women and children take their seats in the passenger cars, which are divided by wealth and status. Among the passengers is an anarchist intent on destruction, a young boy travelling alone, a pregnant woman fleeing her home village for the anonymity of the big city, a medical student who suspects a girl may have a fatal disease, and the railway men, devoted to the train, to the company and to each other.
Based on an 1895 disaster that went down in history when it was captured in a series of surreal, extraordinary photographs, The Paris Express is a thrilling ride and a literary masterpiece that captures the politics, fears and chaos of the end of the nineteenth century.
Critical Praise
“Donoghue's talents are at such glorious heights in this novel, the reader feels as though they are on the titular train, bustling next to strangers, staring out the window, and hurtling towards Paris. And it's near impossible to put the book down until it reaches its final destination. Donoghue beautifully crafts a world that captures the vitality and smells and sights of Victorian France, while investigating the different classes who inhabited the same spaces, but lived worlds apart....Donoghue's train is a microcosm of Paris of the times, ready to explode.” — Heather O’Neill, author of The Capital of Dreams
“Captivating! Emma Donoghue writes in rich, luxuriant detail, yet the story moves at a exhilarating clip. The Paris Express brings big questions about human interconnectedness into an edge-of-your-seat historical thriller that I couldn’t put down.”— — Shelby Van Pelt, author of Remarkably Bright Creatures
"Clever, ambitious, and richly researched. A slice of 1890s Paris that makes us see that our modern problems aren’t so modern after all! The Paris Express is a smartly structured novel that ratchets up the pace until it's hurtling along as fast as the doomed train itself." — Alice Winn, author of In Memoriam
“Donoghue establishes an intricate web of human relationships as the narrative speeds toward an unexpected yet plausible finale….Readers ought to jump on board.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
-Product Details
- ISBN: 9781443474238
- ISBN 10: 1443474231
- Imprint: HarperAvenue
- On Sale: 03/18/2025
- Pages: 288
- List Price:34.99 CAD
- BISAC1 : FICTION / Historical
- BISAC2 : HISTORY / Europe / France
- BISAC3 : FICTION / Literary
