Just Finished Reading: Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier (FP: 2004) [436pp] 

Berne, Switzerland. It was, so it seemed at first, a normal day. Raimund Gregorious was walking his normal route to the college where he had been teaching Greek, Latin and Hebrew for as long as anyone could remember. He was crossing the bridge he had crossed a thousand times at this time of day, when he saw the women in front of him obviously emotionally disturbed by the letter she was reading. Gregorious thought little of it until he saw the woman slowing slip out of her shoes. Worried that she might be contemplating suicide, Gregorious did something completely out of character – he intervened. That was the day his life changed. He convinced her to follow him to his college and watched as she sat through his first lecture of the day. His students, long used to his familiar ways, hardly knew how they should react. Little did they know that this would only be the start of the surprises ahead of them that day. Still disturbed by his early morning encounter, Gregorious walked into town and found himself in a local bookshop. Almost unconsciously he picked up a discarded book and started to read, only to discover that the book was in Portuguese, a language he was unfamiliar with. The shop owner then translated a passage and Gregorious felt as if he had been struck by lightning. How was it possible that an author he had never heard of before, writing in a foreign language, could be speaking as if directly to him? Over the next few hours, the conviction within him grew. He would need to find out more about this author and how he came to his views on life and living. He would need to go to Lisbon – immediately. 

As usual with such things I picked this book up, a little over 10 years ago now, because it looked ‘different’. It certainly was that! I’ve actually been thinking over the past few weeks how I can possibly review this book. I know one thing – it's not going to be straightforward. One of the easiest ways to describe it is to portray the tale of a late middle-aged man going through a mid-life or existential crisis. There is something to that but there’s far more going on here. Gregorious is a man in crisis sure enough – except that, until the meeting on the bridge – he had barely recognised this to be the case. He was almost as shocked as those around him regarding what his quest forced him to do and forced him to consider about himself as well as the life he had lived and continued to live. Obviously his ‘quest’ was scripted by the author of this amazing novel, but it felt like Gregorious was being directed on a course of action he had little control over. It’s hard to describe but I couldn’t help but think that there was a “magical realism” ‘tint’ to the story as if everything was hyper illuminated or hyper-real. I felt like the ‘contrast’ of the images in my mind had been turned up to 11. The metaphor of his new glasses was a little ‘on the nose’ but I didn’t mind at all. I’ve had new glasses myself that have had a similar, if not quite so philosophical, impact. I really liked the metaphor of the chess games which I thought worked really well and then, naturally, the metaphor of train travel. All very well done. His adventures and encounters in Lisbon were endlessly fascinating. I was there, briefly, a little over 20 years ago and loved what I saw. The city and the people he met there – all amazingly drawn – completely absorbed me. It was probably some of the best character creations I’ve read in a very long time. A book filled with people you would want to know – even the supposed ‘difficult’ ones!  

But you may be asking about now, what was the book actually about? It was about regret and loss, it was about love and parental pressure, it was about loyalty and friendship, it was about forgiveness and duty, it was about realising how little we know other people and how we can be fooled into thinking we know ourselves – and that only begins to scratch the surface of this quite brilliant book. I’m finding it hard to imagine reading a better book this year – though I’m going to try because I do like a challenge! It was the kind of book that not only could you easily read it again and get more from it, but it was the kind of book that, once finished, you could start again from the beginning immediately and still derive both pleasure and insight the second time around. I think I’ll definitely be reading this again. Maybe at the beginning of every year from now on. That might sound a little crazy, but believe me, it’s not. Easily one of the best books I’ve ever read and, therefore, very, very highly recommended. 

Translated from the German by Barbara Harshav 

[Labels added: 1, Labels Total: 13]