I first spotted the UK cover (below) for The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wasteland, Sarah Brooks‘s very-intriguing-sounding debut, via a Tweet from Track of Words (a review website you should check out). After doing some looking about for more information, my interest has certainly been piqued. Here’s the synopsis:

A stunning historical fantasy novel set on a grand express train, about a group of passengers willing to make a dangerous journey across a magical landscape

In a nineteenth century world awash with marvels, nothing is so marvelous and terrible as the Wastelands, a vast swath of land between Russia and China of fantastical wildlife that nothing and no one touches except the Great Trans-Siberian Express. Though all know the warnings, the train is never short of travellers, for the Wasteland is as irresistible as it is treacherous. And besides, the train is completely safe.

Except on the last journey, though no one can say what occurred exactly because no one can remember it, not even Wei-Wei, the child of the train who was born on the Express. Only someone does know the truth: Elena, a strange stowaway with a mysterious connection to the Wastelands. As the Express embarks on a new voyage with a new set of travellers, each hiding their own motivations and secrets, Elena and Wei-Wei begin a dangerous friendship just as the train starts to misbehave. Desperate to save the only home she has ever known, Wei-Wei fights to keep the train from breaking down. But the rules of the Wasteland are changing and the wildness outside threatens to consume them all.

Gorgeously written and astonishingly imaginative, The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands is a pulse-pounding adventure and a provocative exploration of our relationship with the disappearing natural world.

*

Sarah Brooks’s The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wasteland is due to be published by Flatiron in North America (July 9th, 2023) and W&N in the UK (June 20th).

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