The Cautious Traveller's Guide to The Wastelands: The most hotly-anticipated, original and absorbing debut novel of 2024

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The extraordinary and engrossing debut novel set onboard the Trans-Siberian Express - available to pre-order now!

It is said there is a price that every passenger must pay. A price beyond the cost of a ticket.

It is the end of the 19th Century and the world is awash with marvels. But there is nothing so marvellous as the Wastelands: a terrain of terrible miracles that lies between Beijing and Moscow.

Nothing touches this abandoned wilderness except the Great Trans-Siberian Express: an impenetrable train built to carry cargo across continents, but which now transports anyone who dares to cross the shadowy Wastelands.

On to the platform steps a curious cast of characters: a grieving woman with a borrowed name, a famous child born on the train and a disgraced naturalist, all heading for the Great Exhibition in Moscow.

But the old rules are changing, and there are whispers that the train isn't safe. As secrets and stories begin to unravel the passengers and crew must survive their journey through the Wastelands together, even as something uncontrollable seems to be breaking in . . .

Reviews

A journey both unnerving and powerful, which thunders along at breathtaking speed, abounding with mysteries and marvels. Be warned - once you step into The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands, you'll never want to disembark -- Samantha Shannon, author of THE BONE SEASON
Asks us to reconsider our place within the natural world amid a backdrop of capitalism and empire. . . thrilling and transcendent -- Rita Chang-Eppig, author of DEEP AS THE SKY, RED AS THE SEA

Author Bio

Sarah Brooks won the Lucy Cavendish Prize in 2019. She works in East Asian Studies at the University of Leeds where she also helps run the Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing. She is also co-editor of SAMOVAR, a bilingual online magazine for translated speculative fiction.