I loved the evocative cover of this book. It immediately conjured up days of travel by steam and a different world. The story is partly based on fact, with the real Paris Express the literal vehicle for the narrative. I wanted to like this but it’s fallen rather flat. I’m not a huge Donohgue fan and found Room unreadable. She’s clearly undertaken extensive and meticulous research to inform the detail. Perhaps just too much detail overall as it’s distracting. Too much about the train and the number of characters is extensive. Each has a part to play, of course, but the sheer numbers are confusing at times and it feels muddled and put together piecemeal. I felt there’s only a tenuous thread throughout and not a great deal by way of plot. The writing is excellent and all depictions are plausible and well rounded, but this is a book that for me, failed to ignite.

Imagine a film. Something like Murder on the Orient Express. How all the characters develop, first on the platform, then on the train itself. How the staff on the train work as a team and of course the elite footplate staff, the engineer and fireman. Can you almost smell the scene? Coal, steam and oil?
Emma Donoghue manages to make paper become celluloid in her delivery of The Paris Express. It's so well done, I wouldn't be surprised if in fact it does become celluloid and appears at a cinema near you.

The Paris Express is a fictional work, albeit with meticulous research, that explores the journey made by the train involved in the crash at Montparnasse in Paris in 1905. The passengers travelling in different classes of carriages are highlighted, along with the crew and the back stories are told and links between them are forged.
The writing is good, the historical details are interesting and Donoghue has obviously done a lot of research both into the people who were on the train and into how this railway company worked, but I found the huge list of characters overwhelming and I wasn't that interested in how the train worked. Ultimately, since the outcome of the story is inevitable the plot is weak.
I found it an interesting idea and it was as well executed as it could be but it didn't make a great read and is certainly not the best of Donoghue's books.
With thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for an arc copy in return for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the historical aspects of this book as I had no previous knowledge of this disaster. Clearly a lot of research has been done and I appreciated that. I did think there were too many characters and too much detail about the train that I wasn't particularly interested in. Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

I enjoyed this journey into Paris. Emma Donoghue is a great study of character. I have read all her books and actually I don’t always enjoy them but they are always interesting. This was both. I got wrapped up in the characters. All with different reasons for being on the train, and different desires and internal dialogue. Worth a read and thanks to NetGalley for the early copy.

This novel explores the circumstances surrounding the 1895 train crash at the Paris Montparnasse. Various characters from each class are highlighted, their back stories told and links built up.

You hear about a female anarchist, a medical student who suspects a fellow passenger may be dying, a Russian emigre whose life’s work is to help those around her, members of parliament rushing back to Paris to vote and a budding artist and film maker. All potential victims of the anarchist until fate intervenes.

The author also builds up a picture of the train crew - the pressures they are put under by the train company and the difficulties of life on the railways.

Evocative, building slowly but with an unexpected ending.

One I will be recommending.

A fascinating dramatisation of a real train journey that ended in tragedy for many. I loved the back stories and historical details and the factual role call at the end.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7099053159

3.5 stars for me.

The author is very talented to take the story of a single (real) train journey through late 19th century France and turn it into an interesting and suspenseful read. She must have done a fair bit of research as the time period is evoked in meticulous detail and I felt that I learned quite a bit about French society at the time by reading this. After a slow beginning, the suspense also builds up nicely - unless you read up on the incident on which the book is based in advance, you'll know from the start that something is going to happen to the train, but not what or when.

However, all that said, there are limits on what you can do with a book based on a single event like this. It's hard to get more than a brief snapshot of the train's various occupants over the course of this one relatively short journey. I personally could probably also have done without quite so much detail about the train itself and how it works - I found myself glazing over slightly during those parts!

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC, which I enjoyed.

This book takes you on a journey from Granville to Paris in 1895, inspired by a real train crash. The story is packed with over 30 characters from all walks of life—a knitter, a revolutionary with a bomb, a medical student, and more. It’s an interesting mix, and the setting really brings the time period to life.

But honestly, there were just too many characters for me to keep track of. I couldn’t tell who I was supposed to focus on, and some of the details—like how steam trains work—felt unnecessary. By the halfway point, I was a little overwhelmed.

That said, if you enjoy historical fiction with lots of perspectives, you might like this one. The premise is fascinating, even if the story felt a bit crowded to me.

I loved this! It was so interesting and well written with all the different characters had such great back stories. At first I got a bit confused between them all but once I got into the story I was well away. I actually stayed up until 3 am to finish it which says it all. I hope the little boy found his family...

Was astonished that it was based on an actual incident at Montparnasse Station.
Highly recommend this - an author I always look out for the next book from.

The Paris Express is a fascinating historical novel based on the true story of a train derailment in 1895. The story follows a steam train traveling to Paris, filled with a diverse group of passengers, including an anarchist with a bomb, a young boy on his first solo trip, and a pregnant woman..

The book starts slowly but has quite a dramatic finale. It’s perfect for readers who enjoy well-researched historical fiction and whilst it’s not fast-paced, it’s a compelling and unique read.

I knew I was going to love Emma Donoghue's new novel, but I had no idea quite how much. The Paris Express is a piece of literary engineering genius. (Beware, there follows some rail-ly bad train puns.) The story takes place on the Paris Express train in 1895. The steam train is a character in her own right, and chugs along for a bit quite gently, meandering almost, as the reader is introduced to all the varied passengers and crew.

All the characters are intricately drawn, Donoghue conducting their hopes and fears and dreams in her consummate genius way, but a few in particular stand out.

Most notably the young woman clutching the bomb on her lap.

The train steams on towards its destination, and the reader thinks the rails will bend in a certain inevitable direction, but then there comes a shock that no one is predicting, least of all me! This story derailed me (in a good way!), stoked my heart, and I predict it will be a runaway hit!

Emma Donoghue is an excellent writer and you never know where her novels are going to lead you. This one leads you across France on a steam train with a huge cast of characters and a building atmosphere of tension. Although the writing is crisp, the stories behind all of the people on the train are slightly overwhelming and I found myself speed reading to get to the end of the book. Not the best Emma Donoghue novel I have read, sadly.

Absolutely jam-packed with characters, this worked for the most part but did feel slightly overwhelming at times. I hadn't realised it was based on a true story, and so I felt the suspense throughout, wondering quite how things would play out and what was going to happen. Everything feels heightened, since these chance conversations are taking place on a train journey, and when you meet someone on the train you know it's just, usually, a momentary interaction. And there is that pace to the story of the journey passing, time passing, and the disaster incoming. I'd imagined we were heading towards something quite different with the ending, so it was interesting to learn about the true story it was based on at the end.

I liked the additional note at the end explaining the characters & the author's research. I also learned a bit about steam trains, which was interesting!

A haunting story filled with suspense right until the end. The author really manages to make the reader feel on the fated train with all the various passengers each with their own back story. I would highly recommend mend this book.

The Paris Express- is based on a real event and Donoghue has cleverly reimagined, the 7 hour train journey from Granville in Normandy to Paris Monparnasse where the engine spectacularly crashed.
Emma catches turn of last century France so well and you can really see the coaches of the train in your mind. As well as the dirty, smelly coal locomotives. There is a large cast of characters (mostly real) and it is a little hard to keep track of them all , but again she captures the feeling of a long journey where you interact with strangers for several hours and then arrive at your destination and never see them again.
I found the pacing of the book a lot off , she flits from one carriage to the next , but on finishing the book it makes sense as again the pacing fits with the journey and emphasises the crash at the end.
I am a long term Emma Donoghue fan , I just love how each of her books is completely differently but totally immerses you in the world she is describing. This book was no different, well worth a read.

Wow. This is fascinating and it became all the more so when I finished it and realised it was based on a true event! Admittedly it felt like slightly slow going to begin with, I think purely because I found it hard to keep track of who was who when you are so quickly introduced to a huge number of characters. However, I quickly found them fascinating and was so intrigued by the story behind each grouping of passengers.
I won’t ruin the story but I would absolutely recommend this thoroughly well researched and utterly absorbing story.

On 22 October, 1894 there was a spectacular train derailment at Montparnasse Station in Paris. One person was killed, a newspaper seller, Marie Haguillard. The first reaction from witnesses and passengers alike was it was anarchist attack, something that even then was common.
In telling the story behind the stunning event, Emma Donoghue has used the people who were on the train, the employees of the Company of the West, the owners of the train and many others who have now been included in an c work of Historic fiction.
The Paris Express is a very clever re-telling of History, bringing what was surely an horrific event to life once again through the people who were on the train. The Engineer, Guillaume Pellerin, and his Stoker and long-time friend Victor Garnier, tell of being under pressure to keep the train on time despite setbacks and ever tightening schedules.
As the passengers on the train come to life, there is the little boy who loves to travel on trains taking his first journey by himself, an artist, an anarchist, a very pregnant woman, an artist’s muse, a Priest, a showgirl, three politicians, a leader of industry and an Aristocratic family, as well as host of colourful characters to be discovered as the Engine 721 speeds ever faster towards destiny and place in history.
A captivating aspect of this story is that on the train there is a microcosm of humanity, captured for all time in the pages of history, each one with their own stories, each one looking forward to a brighter, better future when the new century arrives.
Not a fast paced read, but one that looks at humanity carefully The Paris Express fits somewhere between a history lesson and a good read.

"The Paris Express" by Emma Donoghue starts off slow, builds momentum and keeps going until the very end, very much like a train. I really wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy this book when I first picked it up but as you start to meet the characters (including the train which is a character as well), seeing who is in third, second and first class, you become invested. Chuck in an anarchist plot, a pregnant lady and a glimpse into late 19th Century French life then you will be gripped. Even better, it is based on a true event!

This is a very engaging novel, based on historical events. The plot covers less than one day, and follows an express train journey from Brittany to Paris at the end of the nineteenth century. As might be expected, there is a wide variety passengers in terms, for example, of social class, age, and occupation. Some of these characters were actually on the express train on the day in question, others were real people who might possibly have been passengers, and some are fictional.

The author gives readers glimpses of the countryside passed through, just as a passenger experiences scenery flashing by during a train journey. Station stops are more fully described, but most of the novel concerns the passengers themselves, their back stories as well as imaginary recreations of their various experiences and inner thoughts during the journey.

The author spent a productive year in Paris researching for the book, and there is a fascinating concluding section which covers the train journey and all the “real” characters in this excellent novel.