Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal

From Wellcome Prize winner Maylis de Kerangal comes a fast-paced story of two fugitives set on the Trans-Siberian railway, where a desperate Russian conscript hopes a chance encounter with a French woman will offer him an escape. In sensual prose evoking jazz music and infused with a sense of surreal softness, Maylis de Kerangal brings the filthy, violent circumstances of Aliocha’s journey into sharp focus.

‘The fever burning through this story, its suspense and its lyrical escapes don’t curb its sensuality, and precision. [Kerangal’s] language has an incredible driving force. It is both like a stone made up of many crystals, mixing registers with fluidity, and juxtaposing the poetic and the trivial. The whole thing has a unique rhythm, a sense of breathless speed: the sort of graceful rockslide that only she can pull off. In flux between interior and exterior, this is the perfect voyage.’ – Le Monde des Livres