Few contemporary writers craft historical fiction with as much suspense, insight, and originality as novelist, screenwriter, and playwright Emma Donoghue. With her latest, much-anticipated, novel, The Paris Express, Donoghue once again illuminates the present through an empathetic re-imagining of the past.
Loosely inspired by an 1895 disaster that went down in history when it was captured in a series of surreal, extraordinary photographs, The Paris Express is a propulsive novel set on a train packed with a fascinating cast of characters who hail from as close as Brittany and as far as Russia, Ireland, Algeria, Pennsylvania and Cambodia. Members of parliament hurry back to Paris to vote; a medical student suspects a girl may be dying; a secretary tries to convince her boss of the potential of moving pictures; two of the train's crew build a life away from their wives; a young anarchist makes a terrifying plan, and much more.
Donoghue’s previous bestsellers—Room, The Wonder, and Frog Music, among them—have been acclaimed by The New Yorker (“a writer of great vitality and generosity”) and Oprah Daily (“soul-stirring), and have earned her numerous international accolades, including the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. She was nominated for four Academy Awards for her own adaptation of Room, which she also turned into an award-winning play that’s been staged around the world.
In this exclusive Toronto premiere, Donoghue takes to the Hot Docs stage to discuss the writing of The Paris Express. Be the first to experience one of the most evocative historical thrillers of the year, a book that novelist Heather O’Neill describes as “near impossible to put down.”
The Paris Express will also be available for purchase at the event.
Donoghue will be signing books after the Q&A.
Thank you to our partners Harper Collins Canada and partner and bookseller TYPE Books.
TICKETS (+HST)
Orchestra (Stage View): $15