'Eastbound' Maylis de Kerangal

While walking the Chester Valley Trail (3 miles) we will discuss Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal (fiction, 140 pages, 2.5 hrs audio).

Park at the Penn Medicine Valley Forge parking lot, 1001 Chesterbrook Blvd, Berwyn, PA. Meet at the trailhead. In the event of rain, we will meet at the trailhead, and then decide on moving indoors.

In this gripping tale, a Russian conscript and an older French woman cross paths on the Trans-Siberian railroad, each fleeing to the east for their own reasons.

In mysterious, winding sentences gorgeously translated from French, De Kerangal gives us the story of two unlikely souls entwined in a quest for freedom with a striking sense of tenderness, sharply contrasting the brutality of the surrounding world.