Room author Emma Donoghue is taking readers to France with her next novel, People magazine reports.
Summit Books will publish the Irish Canadian author’s The Paris Express next year. The press describes the book as “a sweeping historical novel about an infamous 1895 disaster at the Paris Montparnasse train station.”
Donoghue made her literary debut in 1994 with the novel Stir-Fry. Several novels followed, with Room, published in 2010, becoming a breakout hit. The book, which told the story a woman and her young son who were held captive for years in a shed, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; in a starred review, a critic for Kirkus praised it as “wrenching, as befits the grim subject matter, but also tender, touching and at times unexpectedly funny.”
The novel was adapted into a 2015 movie directed by Lenny Abrahamson and starring Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay. Donoghue was nominated for an Academy Award for writing the screenplay.
The Paris Express is inspired by a real-life train derailment that killed one person and injured six. Photographs of the disaster have become iconic, with one featured on the cover of Lean Into It, the hit 1991 album by the hard rock band Mr. Big.
The novel follows passengers on the train, who hail from Cambodia, Russia, the U.S., and other countries. Summit says the book is “an evocative masterpiece that effortlessly captures the politics, glamour, chaos, and speed that marked the end of the 19th century.”
The Paris Express is slated for publication on March 18, 2025.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
