Yambao, Samantha Sotto: The Elsewhere Express

When you lose your way in life, the Elsewhere Express just might find you. Step on board the train that may take you to your life s purpose in this wistful, Ghibli-esque fantasy from the bestselling author of Water Moon. A delicately layered dream of a book that glimmers with the promise of hope after grief, The Elsewhere Express will carry you to the stars. Molly O Neill, author of GreenteethYou can t buy a ticket for the Elsewhere Express. Appearing only to those whose lives are adrift, it s a magical train seeming to carry very rare and special cargo: a sense of purpose, peace, and belongin g.Raya is one of those lost souls. She had dreamed of being a songwriter, but when her brother died, she gave up on her dream and started living his instead.One day on the subway, as her thoughts wander, she s swept off to the Elsewhere Express. There she meets Q, an intriguing artist who, like her, has lost his place in the world.Together they find a train full of wonders, from a boarding car that s also a meadow to a dining car where passengers can picnic on lily pads to a bar where jellyfish and whales swim through pink clouds.Over the course of their long, strange night on the train, they also discover that it harbors secrets and danger: A mysterious stranger has stowed away and brought with him a dark, malignant magic that threatens to destroy the train.But in investigating the stowaway's identity, Raya also finds herself drawing closer to the ultimate question: What is her life's true purpose and is it a destination the Elsewhere Express can take her to A stunning, visual fever dream of a story akin to both the game Spiritfarer and Erin Morgenstern s The Starless Sea a character-driven tale wrapped in a sparklingly creative spectacle of a world that inhabits a Studio Ghibli like chaos even as it comes with a well-organized passenger rulebook. Booklist (starred review)