Train Dreams

Combining, like an ancient psalm, sorrow and light, this book by Denis Johnson (1949–2017), a recognized classic of contemporary American literature, tells the story of Robert Grainier—a hermit by necessity—whose life, spanning almost two-thirds of the 20th century, took place among the hills, rivers, and railroad tracks of Northern Idaho. This is a story about a world where, despite the suffering overflowing it, otherworldly beauty breaks through again and again: to grasp it, to capture it, to express it in words is beyond the reach of the main character—only someone free from thoughts and memories, from anxieties and hopes, from speech, from the very language itself could testify to it. Such might have been a dream seen by a train—if trains could dream. Read more interesting facts about this book in