This is an interesting book about a photojournalist who takes an assignment on the Orient Express and learns many things about herself in the meantime. She makes friends with people who change her life. Beautifully described and really makes me want to visit Venice.
Joanna James, a photojournalist in her mid-30s, isn't as thrilled as one might expect when she receives a coveted assignment to ride the Orient Express to Venice for a five-day stay in the sumptuous Hotel Cipriani. Putting off a much needed rest, she flies to London to catch the famed luxury train. There she racks up not one, but two affairs with distinctly different men: Henry, a wryly funny Englishman who practically sleeps in three-piece suits, and Tyler, a wilder, creative genius. Although her journey on the Orient Express offers a respite from these swiftly overheating entanglements, Joanna finds it difficult to regain her accustomed, self-protective emotional detachment. As the train chugs sedately through the European countryside, she strikes up warm and intimate friendships with the other passengers. Everyone, it seems, has a deep, painful secret to share, and by the end of her trip, Joanna has begun to come to terms with the sad moments in her own past.
