Paperback, 127 pages
English language
Published Nov. 17, 2023 by Steerforth Press, Archipelago Books.
In this swirling, gripping tale, a young Russian conscript and a French woman come together in a crowded compartment of the Trans-Siberian railroad, each of them fleeing to the east for their own reasons.
(Read in 2023) A fast and tense read. Poetic and sometimes dreamlike. I enjoyed the shifts between the characters' points of view and also the Siberian setting, especially the contrast between the claustrophobic train and the expanse through which they are passing.
I read the Archipelago edition which was very pleasing to hold and touch. Its physicality really influenced my good opinion. A simple story contained inside a small book, set on the cramped spaces of a train on the Trans-Siberian railway.
