Breakaway Books

Authored by Emma Donoghue; Published March 2025; Historical Fiction

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️

The Paris Express somehow manages to capture both the vibes of the 19th century European railroad culture and the modern TV show 24. It had my attention from the first page to the last.

 The Paris Express follows the titular train as it makes its way from Granville to Paris. Each passenger has a story of his or her own, from the aspiring anarchist and suicide bomber Mado to the extremely pregnant Cecile running toward the anonymity of Paris to the member of parliament hiding his homosexuality. Not one of them knows how the journey will end—or if they will survive. As the train inches closer and closer to the capital, the tension rises, and the reader has to wonder: Will the passengers make it to their destination intact?

As a twenty-first century American, I have a very particular idea of what terrorism looks like. To see a young woman, Mado, in the 1800s plotting an act of terror was striking, for both its differences and its similarities. The desperation that she has, the sense of powerlessness to change her circumstances—these reminded me of the stories I have read and the movies I have seen about modern-day terrorists around the world. Even the elementary, home-made bomb rang true with what I have read about today’s lone wolf attacks. Digging deep into Mado’s story, there is a much more personal tragedy, the repeated miscarriages she was forced to witness at her mother’s bedside. Is this the catalyst that ultimately pushes her toward an act of random, horrific violence? Her passion for her cause is so fierce, and it made me feel so old, because she is still young (and naive?) enough to believe that she could have an impact on cruel profit-driven practices in her country. 

It is Mado that drives the story forward, but tucked in with this anarchist extremist are the signs of the advancing technology of the age. The beginnings of film, vehicles, and advanced medical diagnoses are all features of the passengers’ lives. They feel almost like Easter eggs—interesting, but ultimately unimportant to the final outcome of the journey. The climax is exhilarating: a child’s birth, a train out of control crashing into Paris, a bomb set to explode. In just a few minutes, all the tension building throughout the novel comes to a head. And I loved it. I loved how life met death and how witnessing the collision profoundly impacted the observers. 

I highly recommend The Paris Express if you want to read about extremism from a very different angle—or if you’d just like to immerse yourself in the 1800s.