pickI‘ve been on a real small press/translation kick lately, and this slim volume did not disappoint. This is set in modern Russia on a train traversing the country. Two strangers meet - a French woman leaving a relationship and a young man recently conscripted into the army and travelling to his post with a group of conscripts. A stifling view of modern Russia where freedom is still incredibly limited.
pickA Russian conscript trying to flee from his duties and a woman leaving a man behind meet on a train. Can the soldier escape his fate with her help? This is a very short book and like @Bookboss I‘m not sure why I‘ve heard so much about it. It was a pick because of the tension provided at the end but otherwise it was just okay.
pickTwo people on a trans-Siberian train are looking for escape: a French woman in her thirties and a young Russian conscript. Their lives cross paths in a way that reminds me that we all need to look out for each other. Short, quiet and compelling. Translation by Jessica Moore. The audiobook read by Jennifer Pickens is only 2 hours and 20 minutes long… so I listened to it twice.
He leans close to the glass. His gaze goes out past the reflection of his own face.
The outside is compact and shadowy. Oceanic. The Siberian forest is there. To sink into it would be like entering black water with stones in the bottoms of his pockets. And Aliocha wants to live.
pickA woman hides a Russian soldier in her train compartment so that he can avoid military service. This is a novella focused on language more than plot. The descriptions were interesting, but I struggled to understand why the book has garnered so much acclaim. Perhaps I need to read it again.
pickA Russian conscript, an employee on the Trans-Siberian train, and a French woman come together on a consequential train journey wherein the conscript is desperate to escape the Russian army. This is an interesting story and I enjoyed it, but one of the 5 best fiction books of the year (according to the NYT)? No. Let Us Descend will haunt me for a long time, while I will have mostly forgot this by tomorrow.
pickI get list-frantic this time of year. A solution to the problem of “how am I going to read all these books!?!” is choosing shorter titles to listen to. Eastbound was first up from the #NYT top 10 list, one not on my radar. A book in translation written years ago but feels very “now” as a Russian solider meets a French traveler on a train. It felt like being on a train: chugging along at a fast pace, full of people and sights and sounds.
pick(2023; French original, 2012)
A young French woman meets a Russian conscript on the trans-Siberian railway. Both are fleeing something: the woman is escaping an unfortunate relationship, and the soldier is desperate to desert. On an impulse, the girl lets him into her cabin. It's a short literary thriller with lovely prose and brisk pacing.
https://youtu.be/8U-8QJvDGjc
Chat #1: with Joseph from Calgary
Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal
Jessica Moore (Translator)
Chat #2: with Nancy (The Literate Quilter) from Metro Detroit
The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen
Chat #3: with Nyambura from Nairobi
(they/them/Elle)
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
Chat #4: with Regina from New Orleans
The Secrets of Hartwood Hall by Katie Lumsden
Eastbound | 
