Find Your Way Home--Bestselling Sat Navs
Plan ahead and avoid traffic jams with one of our bestselling sat navs from top brands including TomTom and Garmin. We also stock a great range of up-to-date and fully-routable maps for your device, including popular destinations such as France, Portugal, North America and Scotland.
The London Train
and over 900,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.65
Trade in The London Train for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.65, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
`Darkly elegant...Hadley writes with grace and intensity, moving from careful, beautiful delineation of character and place...to moments of haunting power. She is brilliant, too, at offering us different perspectives' --Financial Times, December 13, 2010
`This beautifully evoked fourth novel is a further example of her talents' -- Literary Review, December 6, 2010
`By far the most interesting feature of Tessa Hadley's carefully sculpted novel is the way she enters so completely into her characters' private worlds of thought and action. The minds of Paul and Cora are so fully occupied by this most astute and sympathetic of writers, that the reader hardly questions their weirdest and least wise moves' --Guardian Review, January 7, 2011
`admirably concise and attentively detailed' --Sunday Times, January 7, 2011
`There is nothing rushed about Tessa Hadley's prose. The story unfurls gradually with an acute eye for humour, human foibles and emotional detail. Her writing is as deft as her story is compelling' --Easy Living, January 7, 2011
`Tessa Hadley's reputation has soared lately, The London Train shows why.' --Conde Nast Traveller, January 7, 2011
`The plot is nothing out of the ordinary, but the way she tells it is remarkable - so much so that you feel you're observing the lives of real people... The two halves of this novel are beautifully woven together; place bets now for the Orange prize' --The Times, January 7, 2011
`I would count this asymmetry among the novel's more mature virtues, which include absolute lack of predictability and scrupulous sincerity' --The Obeserver, January 11, 2011
`Hadley's strength lies in her characterisation...With characters like these Hadley makes us wonder what forms our own darkness takes' --Time Out, January 11, 2011
`Paul is utterly convincing, selfish, despicable, yet somehow likeable...it's an excellent, absorbing read' --Daily Mail, January 11, 2011
`What's so rewarding about Hadley's fiction: how she in points those unsettling moments which occur in everyday life and creates characters who outwardly appear to conform to a distinct personality type, only to twist- suddenly or subtly- against the reader's expectations.'
`I loved the realistic way in which they became different people in different contexts- something that doesn't happen often enough in fiction. Hadley has also created an excellent (and equally foxing) supporting cast'
`The elegant symmetry beneath The London Train keeps the randomness of the personalities on some kind of track. And although this is not a novel to suit those who like all their narratives to roll nearly into the buffers, it offers some first-class views on the psychological scenery of 21st-century Britain' --The Telegraph, January 18, 2011
`The novel is a triumph of form, gathering depth as the meaning of the second story, about Cora, develops in light of the first, about Paul.' --The Independent on Sunday, January 18, 2011
`She has a well-established gift for social observation, working by accretion rather than grand statement, and this novel contains many finely turned moments.' --TLS, January 18, 2011
`There is something reassuring yet deliciously unexpected about a Tessa Hadley novel.'
`Hadley is particularly adept at portraying a certain type of grown-up angst'
`Her balancing of contemporary issues and the life of the mind faultless'
--Seven Magazine(The Telegraph), January 18, 2011
"Tessa Hadley is an understated writer whose concentration on the details of everyday life belies a breathtaking acuity and articulateness."
"She once again visualizes the monochrome maundanity of ordinary existence in glorious Technicolor"
"Hadley captures shades of almost imperceptible grey that the reader only recognizes after reading"
"Hadley shows, with dizzying aplomb, that the distinction between "literary" fiction and the best domestic fiction is spurious." --The Independent, January 25, 2011
`serene style and carefully constructed scenes.' --TLS, January 25, 2011
`Hadley's shrewd observation gains in distinction with every book she writes.'
--The Independent,
'Is this a proper novel with a cohesive narrative or two separate interrelated stories? Probably the latter, but whatever, it's an excellent, absorbing read' --Daily Mail
`Tessa Hadley again demonstrates her skill at amplifying the details of lives' --Metro
`beautifully written and utterly absorbing, driven by a subtle, infectious curiosity about its characters and the sense they try to make of their lives' --The Lady
`Not nearly as well known as she ought to be, Tessa Hadley is a subtle mistress of British manners but, unlike so many modern novelists, has no shortage of empathy'
--Psychologies
`A beautifully observed and thoughtful novel'
--Woman & Home
`This beautifully evoked fourth novel is a further example of her talents' -- Literary Review, December 6, 2010
`By far the most interesting feature of Tessa Hadley's carefully sculpted novel is the way she enters so completely into her characters' private worlds of thought and action. The minds of Paul and Cora are so fully occupied by this most astute and sympathetic of writers, that the reader hardly questions their weirdest and least wise moves' --Guardian Review, January 7, 2011
`admirably concise and attentively detailed' --Sunday Times, January 7, 2011
`There is nothing rushed about Tessa Hadley's prose. The story unfurls gradually with an acute eye for humour, human foibles and emotional detail. Her writing is as deft as her story is compelling' --Easy Living, January 7, 2011
`Tessa Hadley's reputation has soared lately, The London Train shows why.' --Conde Nast Traveller, January 7, 2011
`The plot is nothing out of the ordinary, but the way she tells it is remarkable - so much so that you feel you're observing the lives of real people... The two halves of this novel are beautifully woven together; place bets now for the Orange prize' --The Times, January 7, 2011
`I would count this asymmetry among the novel's more mature virtues, which include absolute lack of predictability and scrupulous sincerity' --The Obeserver, January 11, 2011
`Hadley's strength lies in her characterisation...With characters like these Hadley makes us wonder what forms our own darkness takes' --Time Out, January 11, 2011
`Paul is utterly convincing, selfish, despicable, yet somehow likeable...it's an excellent, absorbing read' --Daily Mail, January 11, 2011
`What's so rewarding about Hadley's fiction: how she in points those unsettling moments which occur in everyday life and creates characters who outwardly appear to conform to a distinct personality type, only to twist- suddenly or subtly- against the reader's expectations.'
`I loved the realistic way in which they became different people in different contexts- something that doesn't happen often enough in fiction. Hadley has also created an excellent (and equally foxing) supporting cast'
`The elegant symmetry beneath The London Train keeps the randomness of the personalities on some kind of track. And although this is not a novel to suit those who like all their narratives to roll nearly into the buffers, it offers some first-class views on the psychological scenery of 21st-century Britain' --The Telegraph, January 18, 2011
`The novel is a triumph of form, gathering depth as the meaning of the second story, about Cora, develops in light of the first, about Paul.' --The Independent on Sunday, January 18, 2011
`She has a well-established gift for social observation, working by accretion rather than grand statement, and this novel contains many finely turned moments.' --TLS, January 18, 2011
`There is something reassuring yet deliciously unexpected about a Tessa Hadley novel.'
`Hadley is particularly adept at portraying a certain type of grown-up angst'
`Her balancing of contemporary issues and the life of the mind faultless'
--Seven Magazine(The Telegraph), January 18, 2011
"Tessa Hadley is an understated writer whose concentration on the details of everyday life belies a breathtaking acuity and articulateness."
"She once again visualizes the monochrome maundanity of ordinary existence in glorious Technicolor"
"Hadley captures shades of almost imperceptible grey that the reader only recognizes after reading"
"Hadley shows, with dizzying aplomb, that the distinction between "literary" fiction and the best domestic fiction is spurious." --The Independent, January 25, 2011
`serene style and carefully constructed scenes.' --TLS, January 25, 2011
`Hadley's shrewd observation gains in distinction with every book she writes.'
--The Independent,
'Is this a proper novel with a cohesive narrative or two separate interrelated stories? Probably the latter, but whatever, it's an excellent, absorbing read' --Daily Mail
`Tessa Hadley again demonstrates her skill at amplifying the details of lives' --Metro
`beautifully written and utterly absorbing, driven by a subtle, infectious curiosity about its characters and the sense they try to make of their lives' --The Lady
`Not nearly as well known as she ought to be, Tessa Hadley is a subtle mistress of British manners but, unlike so many modern novelists, has no shortage of empathy'
--Psychologies
`A beautifully observed and thoughtful novel'
--Woman & Home
Book Description
A compelling and beautifully written new novel from the acclaimed Tessa Hadley: a remarkable portrayal of a man and woman whose lives collide on the Cardiff to London train.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Dreadfully dull,
By
This review is from: The London Train (Hardcover)
In this book, nothing happens in a thoroughly unentertaining way.I read this book carefully noting the dull observations that Tessa Hadley made, expecting at least some of them to have relevance to later parts in the story, but was disappointed. There is absolutely no justification for putting this nonsense inside a novel. I wouldn't go out and buy a newspaper on Joe Bloggs tooth brushing technique, why would I be interested in a fictional characters? I got the impression that Hadley was deliberately trying to waste my time. I'm all for description in novels if they enhance the book in some way, but a lot of the time Hadley completely misses the mark. For instance, she notes the uneasy atmosphere in the air because it is sunny in November and everyone is thinking about global warming, at which I think "What!?". I fear Hadley may have been trying to make an intelligent observation rather than sticking to her true talent of describing people going to the bathroom. *Here I would point out that there is some plot spoiling, although I think the word plot applied to this book is quite generous.* And then 20 pages before the end she is describing a batty old lady's painting business and I am thinking how the hell are going to bring this novel to an interesting finish which ties the ends together, and lo and behold she doesn't. Even the lack of story that she does have relies on some pretty unconvincing events. So Robert slips up on the tube, goes to hospital, has an epiphany, goes to Cora's house where he finds the keys outside, let's himself inside, and when Cora returns home they fall into each others arms? This is basically what occurs after the painting business incident. That is how Hadley ties up a novel in 20 pages, with complete nonsense. I'm going to stop writing before this book wastes any more of my time.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
RATHER A DAMP SQUIB,
By bibliophile (essex) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The London Train (Paperback)
I had been looking forward to reading this book.I had read the reviews when it came out in hardback, and was waiting for the paperback publication.I even put it on my wish list-a rare occurence- I found the story rather flat.There seemed to be a great deal of potential for the novel to be really good and riveting.The characters seemed lacking in depth,and the idea of writing two separate stories linked by the train from Cardiff to London -I wondered where the train was going to come in there had to be more significance than just a means of transport-for me did not particularly work.At first when Cora and Frankie appeared I thought I must have missed something in the first part of the novel.Overall disappointing,not a bad book, but one that failed to fire my imagination,and left me rather unsatisfied.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Subtly written, finely crafted,
This review is from: The London Train (Hardcover)
Tessa Hadley is that rare thing, a quietly virtuoso writer, who thinks deeply about her craft and its relationship with traditions of realist fiction. THE LONDON TRAIN is shaped as a diptych, the two panels facing one another - but asymmetrically. It concerns an abortive love affair, between Paul and Cora, which began in a chance meeting on the London train - but the relationship is over when the novel opens and the first section, which is Paul's story, hardly mentions it. Only in Cora's story, which occupies the second panel, do we see retrospectively what lay hidden behind Paul's narrative.So this is a novel of aftermaths and ambiguities: in each panel there are journeys to London, up and down the line; there are losses and disappearances. The characters are seen through a complex lens that registers their preoccupations, desires and choices when not in one another's orbit. This is a device as intelligent as it is elliptical, throwing the work of interpretation on to the reader. And the mesmerising,suspenseful puzzle of the novel stays with you long after you have put the novel down. Tessa Hadley is an accomplished writer of the short story - and the obliquity of her narrative owes something to the subtle craft of this form. On the level of characterisation, minor characters are peculiarly arresting: Paul's elder daughter, in her lonely, estranged and needy situation, making a demand on her father's heart that he is at last able to answer. A lovely novel from one of our most distinguished writers.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
