The Paris Express

"In her latest historical novel, Emma Donoghue takes us for a ride on the Paris-bound train that left the Normandy coast on Oct. 22, 1895, and ended up crashing through the parapet of Montparnasse Station seven hours later. En route, we meet a cross-section of fin-de-siècle France, including crewmen, artists, engineers, prominent politicians, rich toffs, immigrants and an angry young radical feminist who plans to detonate a homemade explosive sometime before the train reaches Paris. The result is a propulsive read that plows ahead unstoppably to its climax."