Night Train to Lisbon

A teacher of dead languages (Latin, Greek) at a Swiss prep school has no real friends or even much of a life. One day he stops a despondent young woman from jumping off a bridge. She is Portuguese and he then begins reading a fictitious philosophy book by a Portuguese author. He becomes obsessed wit......more

He is a teacher… He is a man whose habits are his roots… …he, Mundus, the most reliable and predictable person in this building and probably in the whole history of the school, having worked here for more than thirty years, impeccable in his profession, a pillar of the institution, a little dull perh......more

I LOVED this book. I've been running around quoting "Given that we can live only a small part of what there is in us - what happens to the rest?" Part of me wants to say that that line, and the subject of this book, the exploration of alternate lives than the one you've chosen, resonated with me bec......more