The Elsewhere Express
A Novel
-
- ¥2,000
発行者による作品情報
When you lose your way in life, the Elsewhere Express just might find you. Step on board the train that may take you to your life’s purpose in this wistful, Ghibli-esque fantasy from the bestselling author of Water Moon.
“A delicately layered dream of a book that glimmers with the promise of hope after grief, The Elsewhere Express will carry you to the stars.”—Molly O’Neill, author of Greenteeth
You can’t buy a ticket for the Elsewhere Express. Appearing only to those whose lives are adrift, it’s a magical train seeming to carry very rare and special cargo: a sense of purpose, peace, and belonging.
Raya is one of those lost souls. She had dreamed of being a songwriter, but when her brother died, she gave up on her dream and started living his instead.
One day on the subway, as her thoughts wander, she’s swept off to the Elsewhere Express. There she meets Q, an intriguing artist who, like her, has lost his place in the world.
Together they find a train full of wonders, from a boarding car that’s also a meadow to a dining car where passengers can picnic on lily pads to a bar where jellyfish and whales swim through pink clouds.
Over the course of their long, strange night on the train, they also discover that it harbors secrets—and danger: A mysterious stranger has stowed away and brought with him a dark, malignant magic that threatens to destroy the train.
But in investigating the stowaway's identity, Raya also finds herself drawing closer to the ultimate question: What is her life's true purpose—and is it a destination the Elsewhere Express can take her to?
★ “A stunning, visual fever dream of a story akin to both the game Spiritfarer and Erin Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea—a character-driven tale wrapped in a sparklingly creative spectacle of a world that inhabits a Studio Ghibli–like chaos even as it comes with a well-organized passenger rulebook.”—Booklist (starred review)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With this high-concept romantic fable, Yambao (Water Moon) delivers a dreamlike, whimsical, and wildly imaginative trip through time and liminal space that occasionally raises more questions than it answers. Med student Raya Sia has felt adrift ever since the death of her older brother and weighted down by her parents' expectations. Then she boards the subway one day and inexplicably winds up on the Elsewhere Express, a train running on the edge of consciousness and thought, a refuge for those who have drifted away from their lives. Shortly after boarding, she meets artist Q Chen Philips Jr., likewise cut loose from existence. Tasked with exploring the train to find their designated compartments and encouraged to let go of excess emotional baggage and memories along the way, Raya and Q experience a series of surreal events and encounter colorful crew and passengers. But something dark has also boarded the Elsewhere Express, and Raya and Q are recruited to deal with the problem before it jeopardizes the train's very existence. As the two grow closer, they discover just how tightly their fates are intertwined. The sinuous, multi-perspective narrative meanders, doubles back, and spins around as it gradually reveals the Elsewhere Express's secrets, but sometimes these magical elements and storytelling tricks overshadow the leads' emotional journey. It's a fascinating if somewhat frustrating experience.
