The 6:41 to Paris

“A taut, suspenseful psychological journey from which there is no escape. The 6:41 to Paris shatters any illusions that acts of cruelty committed in our youth are of little consequence later in life. A gripping yarn for our time.”—Kati Marton, author of Paris: A Love Story

“Clever and gripping, The 6:41 to Paris offers an intimate look at what happens when, during a fateful meeting, two old flames are unexpectedly forced to face their lives and the choices they’ve made in the past. Through his masterful use of a dual narrative, Blondel takes the reader on an intense emotional journey, and, as the train rumbles down the tracks, the suspense builds. Unputdownable.”—Samantha Vérant, author of Seven Letters from Paris: A Memoir

"A terrific read. Jean-Philippe Blondel writes masterfully about the astonishing private realm, with two alternating monologues that echo one another."—L'Express

"A fine book, in wonderfully precise and sensitive language, unpretentious and full of small truths."—Die Presse

"Funny, wise and conciliatory."—Stern

Cécile, a stylish forty-seven-year-old, has spent the weekend visiting her parents in a provincial town southeast of Paris. By early Monday morning, she's exhausted. These trips back home are always stressful and she settles into a train compartment with an empty seat beside her. But it's soon occupied by a man she instantly recognizes: Philippe Leduc, with whom she had a passionate affair that ended in her brutal humiliation thirty years ago. In the fraught hour and a half that ensues, their express train hurtles towards the French capital. Cécile and Philippe undertake their own face to face journey—In silence? What could they possibly say to one another?—with the reader gaining entrée to the most private of thoughts. This is a psychological thriller about past romance, with all its pain and promise.

Jean-Philippe Blondel was born in 1964 in Troyes, France where he lives as an author and English teacher. His novel The 6:41 to Paris has been a bestseller in both France and Germany.