Next Up: Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal

                                                                         

 

This book, written in 2012 but recently translated into English, packs a lot of emotional weight into just 135 pages. Here's the publisher's summary:

Aliocha is racing toward Vladivostok with other Russian conscripts packed on a trans-Siberian train. Soon after boarding, he decides to desert. 

Over a midnight smoke in a dark corridor of the train, the young soldier encounters an older French woman, Hélène, for whom he feels an uncanny trust. He manages through pantomime and a basic Russian that Hélène must decipher to ask for her help. As they hurry from the filth of his third-class carriage to Hélène’s first-class sleeping car, Aliocha becomes a hunted deserter and Hélène his accomplice with her own recent memories to contend with. 

Eastbound is both an adventure story and a duet of vibrant inner worlds. In evocative sentences gorgeously translated by Jessica Moore, De Kerangal tells the story of two unlikely souls entwined in a quest for freedom with a striking sense of tenderness, sharply contrasting the brutality of their surrounding world. 

It's a great listen as well: two hours and 23 minutes of storytelling. I (Carroll) gave it an 8. We'll see if I was on the mark or not. 

The meeting date is July 1, which is a Monday. Thursdays were hard to come by because of the Fourth of July holiday, people's travel, etc. See you then!