In the StoryThe Woman on the Train
Every morning, the train passes the family she lost in another life. Mara Keane recognizes a house, gestures, an intimacy she believes she once shared. Through the train window, the people she loves seem to carry on without her. Here, though, she has never had a place in their family.
Open the novel ↗A moment in the opening pages
The night before, she had checked the planned work on the line and chosen the train that gave her nine minutes’ leeway at Farringdon. Nine, not ten: ten would have made her leave earlier for no reason. Mara disliked waiting when she could turn the wait into a calculation. She knew which Farringdon exit saved two pedestrian crossings, which bakery opened before eight, and how long Farah took on average to answer a message containing the word urgent. Most of this information had no…Read the excerpt ↗