A review by lauracooleyjohnson
Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier

4.0

I chose this book because of our trip to Portugal. But I was on vacation and this book isn’t a vacation read. It’s a book you read with a highlighter and notes to prepare to write a very insightful literary analysis. I neither highlighted nor took notes, and probably didn’t get out if it what you’re supposed to. Here are the things I liked. I loved that the book cradled languages. The main character is a professor of ancient languages living in Switzerland (so speaking German and French) but who decides to travel to Portugal and learn Portuguese. It was beautifully written, with delicious words in all sorts of languages just dropped in the text. Kudos to the translator who somehow did it justice in English. I also enjoyed the philosophy puzzles. Is life what we live? Or what we imagine living? Is memory real or a story we tell ourselves? Can anyone truly know themselves or someone else? Is the written word really what is the enlightenment of mankind?

But it wasn’t a vacation read. The story is a journey inward, and not really an exciting journey. And it unsurprisingly doesn’t resolve anything in the end. So I recommend it but only when you’re in the mood for a deep think and do not need a page turner.