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| The 6:41 to Paris by Jean-Philippe Blondel |
Today I am taking part in a virtual book tour for The 6:41 to Paris
by Jean-Philippe Blondel via France Book Tours.SYNOPSIS provided
Cecile, a stylish 47-year-old, has spent the weekend visiting her parents in a provincial town southeast of Paris. By early Monday morning, she is exhausted. These trips back home are always stressful and she settles into a train compartment with an empty seat beside her. But it is soon occupied by a man she instantly recognizes: Philippe Leduc, with whom she had a passionate affair that ended in her brutal humiliation 30 years ago. In the fraught hour and a half that ensues, their express train hurtles towards the French capital. Cècile and Philippe undertake their own face to face journey in silence. What could they possibly say to one another? With the reader gaining entry to the most private of thoughts. This is a brilliant psychological thriller, a high-wire act of emotions on rails, about past romance, with all its pain and promise.
MY REVIEW
As an ex-commuter I identified with a lot in this book; the relief at getting a seat, the annoyance when you realise the prized empty seat next to you is about to be taken, the way an early morning commute lets your mind wander back in time and the awkwardness when body parts accidentally touch on a moving train.
I loved the mystery the
author created and how he made questions keep popping in to my mind. Why had
Cècile and Philippe lost touch? What had happened all those years ago? Why were
they both so unsure about being the first to start a conversation? I had so
many questions. I am nosy and I wanted to know all the nitty gritty from their
shared past, but like a long train journey the author made me wait. This book
is certainly full of suspense, but I think to describe it as a psychological
thriller is a little bit misleading.
The suspense created and
the emotions Cècile and Philippe experienced in their minds, still as strong as
ever from their personal recollections, but kept suppressed from the other
passengers around them, kept me page turning. However, as I read, I found their
‘voices’ were very similar, too similar sometimes and this meant I often got
confused. There was no change in font when there was a change in character and
sometimes there didn’t even seem to be an obvious paragraph break. I found
myself re-reading the first twenty pages more times than I care to admit as I
often found the character had changed without me realising it. This did
frustrate me at first, but once I’d accepted I’d have to concentrate a bit
harder I did enjoy the book, as I really wanted to discover what had happened
and what would happen next.
This book is something a
bit different and I’m sure anyone who is used to taking regular train journeys
would enjoy it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jean-Philippe Blondel
was born in 1964 in Troyes, France
where he lives as an author and English teacher.
His novel The 6:41 to Paris
has been a bestseller in both France and Germany.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Alison Anderson is a novelist and translator of literature from French. Among the authors she has translated are JMG Le Clèzio, Christian Bobin, Muriel Barbery and Amèlie Nothomb. She has lived in Northern California and currently lives in a village in Switzerland.
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The 6:41 to Paris
will be available in paperback from 10th November 2015 but is available to pre-order from Amazon now. A link can be found below.
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