A bevy of mediocre writers are invited to a seminar abroad in a specially chartered train, and this novel tracks their progress across Europe: bitter, bickering, and self-absorbed. Aboard this Literature Express is a Georgian author whose love for the wife of his own Polish translator seems as doomed as his hopes for international success; worse still, it seems all the novelists congregated on the Express intend to write their next books about their journey on the train… Can our Georgian author compete? Is there any hope for contemporary literature, or barring that, at least his own little love affair? The Literature Express is a riotous parable about the state of literary culture, the European Union, and our own petty ambitions – be they professional or amorous.
Lasha Bugadze was born in 1977 in Tbilisi. He is a playwright, novelist, newspaper columnist, and television and radio announcer. He has authored four novels and numerous plays; his works have been published in Georgian, Russian, Armenian, French, German, Polish and English. His story “The Sins of the Wolf” appeared in Best European Fiction anthology of 2013.The Literature Express is published by Dalkey Archive Press, a non-profit organization whose mission is the preservation of literary works of art through publication.
