"A taut, suspenseful psychological journey from which there is no escape. The 6:41 to Paris shatters any illusions that acts of cruelty committed in our youth are of little consequence later in life. A gripping yarn for our time."-Kati Marton, author of Paris: A Love Story"Clever and gripping, The 6:41 to Paris offers an intimate look at what happens when, during a fateful meeting, two old flames are unexpectedly forced to face their lives and the choices they've made in the past. Through his masterful use of a dual narrative, Blondel takes the reader on an intense emotional journey, and, as the train rumbles down the tracks, the suspense builds. Unputdownable."-Samantha Vérant, author of Seven Letters from Paris: A Memoir"A terrific read. Jean-Philippe Blondel writes masterfully about the astonishing private realm, with two alternating monologues that echo one another."-L'Express"A fine book, in wonderfully precise and sensitive language, unpretentious and full of small truths."-Die Presse"Funny, wise and conciliatory."-SternCécile, a stylish forty-seven-year-old, has spent the weekend visiting her parents in a provincial town southeast of Paris. By early Monday morning, she's exhausted. These trips back home are always stressful and she settles into a train compartment with an empty seat beside her. But it's soon occupied by a man she instantly recognizes: Philippe Leduc, with whom she had a passionate affair that ended in her brutal humiliation thirty years ago. In the fraught hour and a half that ensues, their express train hurtles towards the French capital. Cécile and Philippe undertake their own face to face journey-In silence? What could they possibly say to one another?-with the reader gaining entrée to the most private of thoughts. This is a psychological thriller about past romance, with all its pain and promise.Jean-Philippe Blondel was born in 1964 in Troyes, France where he lives as an author and English teacher. His novel The 6:41 to Paris has been a bestseller in both France and Germany.
