Any reader without a vivid imagination, please look away now.

In this novel, ‘a starry-eyed young couple takes a trip on a sleeper train’. The ‘sleeper’ description is apt, as there is a strange, dream-like quality within. Otto and his partner, Xavier, along with their mongoose, Árpád, board the train for a non-honeymoon honeymoon. Xavier’s and Árpád’s suitcases make it onto the train, Otto’s does not.

Xavier’s aunt, Do Yeon-ssi, arranges the journey. The train is the home of Ava Kapoor and is manned by two others, Allegra Yu and Laura de Souza.

Mysterious figures from the past are integral to the story. Most intriguing is Přemsyl Stojaspal, a person who may or may not exist. Ava Kapoor will inherit a fortune from Přem’s late father if she can prove she’s sane. Her sanity and Přem’s existence are very much interrelated. Strange figures board the train (or perhaps don’t). Portraits show/don’t show their subject. This concept of visibility/ invisibility is instilled in the greeting Ava leaves for the two non-honeymooners in their carriage: ‘Here’s to unseeing the world’. (Surreal enough yet?)

Otto narrates; Xavier warns us that Otto lies. Is he an unreliable narrator? (Or is Xavier himself lying?) The couple are sometimes referred to by their initials, becoming hugs and kisses (XOXO). The author delightfully plays with gender, sexuality, race, nationality and reality – any boundary is there to be breached.

Train tracks are fixed and linear and the destination is predetermined. The author deliberately contrasts this with the surreal narrative. There’s an unstated metaphor underlying this, open for your interpretation. I had no idea how the book might end … but I had to know. The plot is wild; the writing is superb. Strap yourself in.

Reviewed by Bob Moore