Sarah Brooks at Truman Books in Farsley

Truman Books in Farsley welcomes Leeds-based author Sarah Brooks to talk about, and read from, her “stunning” debut novel The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands – which the Lit Ed recently spotted a luscious display for in a shop window in King’s Cross St Pancras.

You may have spied Sarah Brooks reading at Leeds Library as part of the Leeds Lit Fest programme, so here’s another chance to hear from her. After working in China, Japan and Italy, Sarah Brooks returned to Yorkshire to do a PhD on classical Chinese ghost stories, and never left. She has been awarded the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize, in 2019, and a Northern Debut Award from New Writing North, in 2021.

“Filled with wild imagination, and a fantastical twist”, The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands is described as a “gloriously nostalgic fiction” that “takes you on a wild and thrilling ride” on the Great Trans-Siberian express during the golden age of steam – here’s a coverline: ‘A woman on the platform with a borrowed name. A disgraced naturalist determined to discover miracles. A child with a dangerous secret.’

Here’s a bit more blurb: It is the 19th century and the world is awash with marvels. But there is nothing so marvellous and terrible as the Wastelands: a vast terrain that lies between Moscow, Russia, and Biejing, China. Nothing touches this deadly wilderness except the Great Trans-Siberian Express: an impenetrable train built to carry precious cargo across continents, but which now also transports anyone willing to dare cross the irresistible Wastelands. The train is never short of travellers. After all, the train is completely safe… Except something happened on the last journey. No can remember exactly what, not even Weiwei, the famous ‘child of the train’ who was born on the Express. The Trans-Siberia Company insist everything has been fixed. But the old rules are changing at a remarkable speed, and as secrets and stories of this curious cast of characters begin to unravel, something uncontrollable appears to be breaking in…