A unique story of a Canadian woman, Gladys, who leaves her life behind to ride the trains. She leaves behind a middle aged daughter. The story’s narrator is seeking Gladys and tells her story as he looks for her.
Gladys’s daughter has some sort of mental issues that make her dependent on her mother. She has to find her way without her. Gladys is like an enigma that was “just there” and then vanished.
It reads like a nonfiction book as far as being educational on the Canadian wilderness and trains. It was an interesting story. It didn’t really grip me. Perhaps due to translation
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookoutre for the opportunity to listen

I'm sad to say I didn't finish this book. I read 28.9% and honestly although at the outset I found it charming, at this point I was forcing myself to listen to the audiobook. I do not think this is the fault of the narrator who was excellent but the meandering, repetitive story. It reminded me of Garrison Keillor at the outset but I failed to connect and lost interest.

The story concerns a woman, Gladys, who for no accountable reason walks out for her life and takes the train across and around Canada. The narrator follows her journey speaking to those she met or knew along the way trying to understand her motive.

She had had a connection to the trains since childhood ( I was interested in the school train) and her disappearance onto one was unsurprising to many of her acquaintances. I just failed to be interested in the story that went nowhere. Possibly it would be a book better to read than listen to. Some nice writing.

Apologias this was an ARC in exchange for an honest freeing and I feel I've failed when I DNF!

"And Miles to Go Before I Sleep" is written by Jocelyne Saucier and translated by Rhonda Mullins.

Gladys has taken the Northlander Train to get as far as she can from the town she's lived in for 50 years in Northern Ontario, Canada. Why has she left her adult daughter, Lisana, behind?

This story documents the search to find Gladys and is written by the mysterious narrator of this story. This is a book within a book, so to speak.

With a passion for trains, the mysterious narrator has thrown the same commitment into investigating Gladys' disappearance. He recalls interviews and face-to-face visits with individuals riding the same trains as Gladys. He recants the numerous phone calls to her friends and neighbors who help in the search and who are bewildered about how and why Gladys simply disappeared.

This audiobook is one of the few I haven't enjoyed this year and I was glad for the shorter listen. I found the narrator, J. Jean Elliott, to have a mostly monotone voice and his gender voicing to be virtually non-existent. Sadly, it felt longer than the actual listening time of 5 hours, 44 minutes.

What I did enjoy was Gladys' portion of the story. The most interesting parts were her history with the trains and her struggles with her chronically disconnected daughter. Listening to how much her neighbors & friends worried about her welfare and then seeing all the pieces of her disappearance come together were additional highlights for me.

What distracted me was hearing about the mysterious narrator's train stories and his love relationship with one of the characters in this story. Was this his story or was it Gladys'? This entanglement causes me to have mixed feelings about this book.

This is a much darker story than I anticipated. I had trouble making a connection with any of the characters so enjoying the story became a difficult task.

3 stars for the story, 2.5 stars for the audiobook averaging 2.75 stars rounded up.

Thank you to NetGalley, Coach House Books, and Jocelyne Saucier for a free ALC of this book. It has been an honor to give my honest and voluntary review. This book is available now.

As she approaches the end of her life Gladys literally leaves everything behind, including her grown daughter, Lisana, with her dark moods. I could identify with her wanting to finally get back to the things that made her happy, made her think about her enormously happy childhood growing up on one of Canada's school trains.
The book focuses on the narrator as he searches endlessly for Gladys trying to figure out where she may have disappeared to as he interviews different characters along the way.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story and Jocelyne Saucier's writing style even though I oft times found the narrator's voice to be dry and monotone.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC copy so that I may review it.

A beautiful and unique story told in an understated, descriptive style. The story is told from the point of view of a train enthusiast searching for an elderly woman named Gladys who disappeared from her home in a small village in Northern Ontario to travel on the Northlander train. Those who know her can't believe she would leave her troubled adult daughter Lisana alone . But Gladys was born and raised on the school trains which criss-crossed Northern Ontario, so this is a familiar place for her. At first this seems like an odd premise and point of view, but as the story unfolds everything comes together naturally, like the simple beauty of Jocelyne Saucier's writing. I wish I could experience her stories in their original French version but even the English translation is transcendent, a truly lovely experience! J. Sean Elliott's narration of the audiobook was a perfect fit for the voice of the train enthusiast trying to uncover this mystery.

A simple, sweet and moving story about one woman’s last train journey and the impact it has on all those around her. I listened to the audio version and the narrator was fantastic, really brought it to life. The sweeping landscapes and small towns described make the whole thing very cinematic, it’d make a fantastic Wes Anderson film. Overall I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone looking for something short and different to listen to/read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Coach House Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.