Overnight to Innsbruck

‘By the time she was forcing her way through third class, sweltering and sweaty, reason began to lose its hold. Where was he? Before stepping across to another carriage she stopped to catch some breeze, but the relief was mild and momentary. Unease began to slide up her legs, preceded by a hunger-like tremor. She tried to catch her breath and calm herself; she must not faint. There was no longer any excuse for this. Richard would know that she would worry and how on earth was she to find him on a train with several thousand people on it?’ On an overnight train to Innsbruck, former lovers Richard and Frances meet each other by chance many years after their mysterious separation on a train journey through the blistering heat and vast empty expanses of the Sudanese desert. As they each tell their separate stories of fear, confusion and loss, they try to unravel the truth of what happened - and finally confront the bitter reality that one of them must be lying. As their train hurtles through a long sleepless night, a third passenger eavesdrops on their conversation, mesmerised by a complex dialogue that probes into the very nature of truth, love and personal identity. Dazzling in its haunting evocations of the landscapes and peoples of north Africa, Overnight to Innsbruck is charged throughout with tantalising puzzles and all the tension of a first-class whodunnit - and marks the debut of a remarkably fresh and original voice in Irish literature.