The 6:41 to Paris

The 6:41 to Paris by Jean-Phillippe Blondel, translated by Alison Anderson, 146 pages


On a packed commuter train to Paris, Cecile is sitting by the sole open seat when a man sits down next to her. As fate would have it, the man is Phillippe, a man she dated briefly 27 years earlier. But this is no sunny trip down memory lane: their short affair ended in brutal humiliation for Cecile, and impacted both of their lives in ways they would never have imagined. Taking place entirely on the 90-minute train ride, The 6:41 to Paris jumps between the thoughts of Cecile and Phillippe, who are unsure of how to interact (or even if they should) given their painful history. For a short book set almost entirely in the minds of the two main characters, this is a surprisingly suspenseful tale, as Blondel masterfully uses their emotions to drop hints about their past before revealing it in the final pages of the book. This is an excellent short read. I highly recommend it.