The London Train
Posted by: Misha Stone
What can happen in a chance meeting on a London train? Which moments in time will be the ones to change your life or alter its course? How can a connection be momentous for one person and a sidenote for another?
Tessa Hadley asks these questions and more in her understated character-driven novel, The London Train.
Split into two halves, The London Train tells the story of Paul and Cora. Paul, a poet, has two young daughters with his second wife, while he has a distant relationship with his adult daughter with his first wife. When his oldest daughter disappears, he finds himself curiously drawn to finding and reconnecting with her, at the expense of his wife and younger daughters.
In the second half we meet Cora, a young woman working in a library and living in her parent’s old flat after having separated from her staid, remote husband. Cora had an affair with Paul years ago, but the impact of that affair reverberates into the present.
Hadley has a keen eye for characterization and makes her characters complex while, at times, inscrutable. If you are looking for a nuanced character-study, try The London Train.
