Midnight Train to Prague
A Novel
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4.1 • 8 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
An unforgettable tale of what we owe to those we love, and those we have left behind
In 1927, as Natalia Faber travels from Berlin to Prague with her mother, their train is delayed in Saxon Switzerland. In the brief time the train is idle, Natalia learns the truth about her father and meets a remarkable woman named Dr. Magdalena Schaefferová, whose family will become a significant part of her future.
Shaken by these events, Natalia arrives at a spa on the shore of Lake Hevíz in Hungary. Here, she meets the journalist and writer Miklós Count Andorján. In time, they will marry, and Natalia will devote herself to life on a rural estate in Hungary.
When war breaks out in Europe, Natalia loses contact with Miklós. She believes they are to meet in Prague, a city under Nazi occupation. She sets up shop as a fortune teller with a pack of Tarot cards. In this guise, she meets Magdalena Schaefferová’s young daughter, Anna. Accused by the Nazis of spying, Natalia is sent to a concentration camp. In April 1945, Natalia and Anna are reunited, and with courage and determination, find the strength to begin again in a changed world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Windley's enthralling epic (after the collection Breathing Under Water), a chance meeting on a train leads to a bond between two women decades later. Fourteen-year-old Natalia Faber and her mother, Beatriz, leave their home near Berlin in 1927 to visit a spa in Hungary. Natalia watches a man dying on their train as a young doctor, Magdalena Schaefferova, tries to save him. While staying at the spa, Beatriz meets Mikl s Andorj n, a budding journalist, and the next year they are married. In 1942, Mikl s goes east to Russia on an assignment, and Natalia goes to Prague to find him. While in Prague, Natalia makes a meager living telling fortunes, gets reacquainted with Magdalena, and meets Magdalena's daughter, Anna, before Natalia is sent to a concentration camp as a political prisoner. After her camp is liberated, Natalia reunites with Anna and continues the search for Mikl s, while Anna reckons with the effects of the war on her own family. The author skillfully conveys the political and social upheaval in WWII-era Europe through the perspectives of journalists, soldiers, and doctors. Fans of WWII fiction will appreciate this accomplished take.
