On an overnight train from London to Edinburgh, a translator becomes engrossed in the stories of the strangers who share her compartment. One has adapted the harrowing childhood experience of an acquaintance for his controversial recent bestseller. The translator has a complicated history of her own. Over the course of a long night, the travelers share food, drink, and confidences that range across space and time, resurfacing old losses and betrayals and blurring the lines between fact and fiction.
Three strangers meet on a sleeper train in this elegant debut from Pérez-Carbonell ... While the novel includes suspenseful plot elements, such as the hunt for Hans Haig, who vanished after Rocco’s publication, the overly cerebral framing keeps readers at arm’s length. Still, Pérez-Carbonell’s assured prose and keen psychological insights show considerable promise.
