How do you survive the unthinkable?
Passengers boarding the 10.35 train from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston are bound for work, reunions, holidays and new starts, with no idea that the journey is about to change their lives for ever…
Holly has just landed her dream job and Jeff is heading for his first ever work interview. Onboard customer service assistant Naz dreams of better things as he collects rubbish from the passengers. And among the others travelling are Nick with his young family; pensioner Meg setting off on a walking holiday with her dog; Caroline, run ragged by the competing demands of her stroppy teenagers and her demented mother; and Rhona, unhappy at work and desperate to get home. And in the middle of the carriage sits Saheel, carrying a deadly rucksack . . .
And in the aftermath, amidst the destruction and desolation, new bonds are formed, new friendships made… and we find hope in the most unlikely of places and among the most unlikely people.
‘Cath Staincliffe gets into the heads of ordinary people and makes them extraordinary‘ Ann Cleeves
‘Harrowing and humane. A real knockout’ Ian Rankin
‘Complex and satisfying‘ Sunday Times
Passengers boarding the 10.35 train from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston are bound for work, reunions, holidays and new starts, with no idea that the journey is about to change their lives for ever…
Holly has just landed her dream job and Jeff is heading for his first ever work interview. Onboard customer service assistant Naz dreams of better things as he collects rubbish from the passengers. And among the others travelling are Nick with his young family; pensioner Meg setting off on a walking holiday with her dog; Caroline, run ragged by the competing demands of her stroppy teenagers and her demented mother; and Rhona, unhappy at work and desperate to get home. And in the middle of the carriage sits Saheel, carrying a deadly rucksack . . .
And in the aftermath, amidst the destruction and desolation, new bonds are formed, new friendships made… and we find hope in the most unlikely of places and among the most unlikely people.
‘Cath Staincliffe gets into the heads of ordinary people and makes them extraordinary‘ Ann Cleeves
‘Harrowing and humane. A real knockout’ Ian Rankin
‘Complex and satisfying‘ Sunday Times
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Reviews
Cath Staincliffe gets into the heads of ordinary people and makes them extraordinary. Her power is in the small detail that builds tension and forces us to care about the characters she's created. The Silence Between Breaths will haunt you. You will find yourself thinking: what would I have done in that situation?
Cath Staincliffe's writing is so utterly real - and virtually invisible - that the reader experiences the shocking as vividly as the ordinary.
As harrowing as it is powerful
Cath Staincliffe gets into the heads of ordinary people and makes them extraordinary. Her power is in the small detail that builds tension and forces us to care about the characters she's created. The Silence Between Breaths will haunt you. You will find yourself thinking: what would I have done in that situation?
An intelligent and emotionally engaging moral workout
Paradoxically, it's their very ordinariness that gets you involved in the lives and concerns of a random group of train travellers, before the tension ramps up and a routine journey takes a shocking twist. You'll want to read it in one sitting
An emotionally engaging thriller
[A] powerful, thoughtful ensemble novel about a terror attack and its legacy ... Harrowing and humane. A real knockout
For her insistence on looking real life squarely in the face, I would call Staincliffe the most grown-up writer in British crime fiction . . . her novel is mercilessly exciting