Before the Last Train Leaves

Some journeys change your destination. Others change your heart. Mara Okonkwo has spent eleven months doing everything on time, right up until she flees the wedding of the man she almost married and buys a one-way ticket to nowhere. Four minutes before the last train south, she spills a cup of coffee on a stranger with a guitar case and nine years of things left unsaid. Neither of them catches that train.
What follows is a single unplanned week: a reluctant journey to a dying father's bedside, a terrible hotel by the sea, three chords played badly, and a forgiveness that arrives too late to fix anything and just in time to heal everything. As the days run out, Mara faces a choice that no ticket can make for her, between the tidy life waiting up north and the one she never booked. Tender, bittersweet, and quietly unforgettable, Before the Last Train Leaves is a story about the exits we don't take, the strangers who become our whole world, and the trains we're meant to miss.
Perfect for readers of Nicholas Sparks, David Nicholls, and anyone who has ever wondered whether one afternoon can change the rest of their life.