The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue takes place 1895 and centers around the famously photographed Montparnasse train derailment. As such, the book has a compressed timeline of events in which the entire story unfolds over the course of six hours. I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve read a book that takes place over the course of hours, hyper-focusing on a specific event, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.
Overall, TPE was an entertaining and fast-paced (no pun intended?) read, but due to the large cast of characters and the very short time frame, I felt like I didn’t really get to know enough about many of the characters to be able to connect with them or have them stand out in meaningful ways. The two stand out characters to me were a young anarchist woman with an explosive (!) secret and an African-American painter who, like many late 19th century painters, journeyed to France for his craft. The other characters were vignettes, fleeting personifications–some based on real people, but in the end I am not sure if the majority of the characters should have had their own POV sections? I understand the motive for including a person from each class, as well as the engineers, but if it had been one from each social strata perhaps the cast of characters would have been more manageable for such a short book.
I will say though that the concept of having the novel unfold over the course of a few hours building up to one event, and the way in which the different classes of passengers experience the train ride, is interesting and unique. However, everything moved so fast (suppose that’s the point) that I ultimately don’t know if I cared greatly about the majority of the characters. That said, Emma Donoghue’s writing is as always high quality.
The Paris Express will be released March 18, 2025
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