Night Train To Lisbon

If you liked Carlos Ruiz Zafón's The Shadow of the Wind, you'll love the international bestseller, Night Train to Lisbon.

One day, mild-mannered, middle-aged teacher Raimund Gregorius suddenly quits his ordinary life. For no reason apparent to his colleagues or his students, he sets off on a journey across Europe. Haunted by a mysterious old book that seems to speak to him personally, he embarks in search of clues to the life of its enigmatic Portuguese author, Amadeu de Prado.

Gradually, he uncovers the life of an extraordinary man: a child prodigy, a doctor, a philosopher, and a rebel. As Gregorius learns about Prado, he also begins a process of self-discovery, looking back at his own life and the choices he has made, wondering about the man he might have been.

Hurtling through the dark, Night Train to Lisbon is a profound tale, wonderfully told, propelled by the mystery at its heart. A novel of ideas that reads like a thriller: an unsentimental journey that seems to transcend time and space. Every character, every scene, is evoked with an incomparable economy and a tragic nobility redolent of the mysterious hero.

Pascal Mercier now takes his rightful place among our finest European novelists. - Sunday Telegraph

A meditative novel that builds an uncanny power . . . Night Train to Lisbon maintains a remarkable immediacy that makes for a rare reading pleasure. - San Francisco Chronicle