'Clever, ambitious . . . a smartly structured novel that ratchets up the pace until it's hurtling along as fast as the train itself' -Alice Winn, author of In Memoriam

It is 1895. A high-speed steam train is the emblem of progress. Industry and invention are creating ever greater wealth and poverty. One autumn day an anarchist boards the Granville to Paris Express.

The train carries others from all over the globe: the railway workers who have built a life together away from their wives, a little boy travelling alone for the first time, an artist far from home, a wealthy statesman and his invalid wife, and a young woman with a secret hidden under her dress.

The Paris Express is a thrilling ride and a literary masterpiece that captures the politics, fear, and chaos of the end of the 19th century.