Read an excerpt from Train Man, the brilliant and profoundly affecting novel by Andrew Mulligan
More about the book!

Journeys intersect. People find people when and where they least expect it. A missed connection needn’t be a disaster: it can save your life.

Penguin Random House has shared an excerpt from Train Man by Andrew Mulligan.

‘Brilliant … profoundly affecting. It broke my heart at the awfulness of humankind and the cruelty with which we treat each other, but it also made my heart sing that there is such love and compassion in the world too. A beautiful story.’ – Ruth Jones, author of Never Greener

About the book

It’s never too late to get back on track.

Michael is a broken man. He’s waiting for the 9.46 to Gloucester, so as to reach Crewe for 11.22: the platforms are long at Crewe, and he can walk easily into the path of a high-speed train to London. He’s planned it all: a net of tangerines (for when the refreshments trolley is cancelled), and a juice carton filled with neat whisky (for Dutch courage). He has his last credit card taped to the inside of his shoe – and that should make identification swift and easy.

What Michael hasn’t factored in is the twelve minute delay, which risks him missing his connection, and making new ones. He longs to silence the voices in his own head: ex-girlfriends, work colleagues, and the memories from his schooldays, decades old. They all torment him. What he really needs is someone to listen, and help him make sense of his grief.

About the author

Andrew Mulligan was born in 1962 and brought up in London. He worked as a theatre director for 10 years before travels in Asia prompted him to retrain as a teacher. Having taught in India, Brazil, Vietnam and the Philippines he returned to the UK and now writes full time. He is best known as a children’s author; his novel Trash (2010) has been published in 32 languages. He also writes radio plays and film scripts. Train Man is his first adult novel: ‘What was the starting point? I’m afraid it was when a colleague did the unthinkable, and all I could think about was what might have saved him.’