If The Train Arrives, Heather Fellin Tierney (Review by Kristin Kurek)
Rating: 5.0/5 Stars
If The Train Arrives is one of those rare novels that feels like a privilege to read from beginning to end. Set around a Wisconsin train station in 1970, the story follows a small constellation of characters whose lives quietly intersect. Lincoln, a neurodivergent train ticket taker, is navigating a neurotypical world while trying to be both a single father to his teenage daughter and a devoted son to his aging mother. Vera, a teenager, is searching for the truth about her father. Violet, once a psychologist’s secretary, is determined to right the wrongs she left behind.
The author’s portrayal of neurodivergence is astonishingly true to how I experience my own. Lincoln’s sharp, crystalline observations paired with his quick leaps from thought to thought allow the reader to inhabit his mind with remarkable intimacy. His discomfort with change, his nonlinear thoughts, and his haunting way of measuring life through the rhythm of arriving and departing trains create a perspective that is both beautiful and aching. As the novel progresses, Lincoln’s inner world becomes richer, more textured, and deeply affecting. I carried a quiet ache for him throughout — a man trying to understand a world that cannot fully understand him, reaching for words that don’t yet exist.
The connections among the characters unfold slowly, and the suspense kept me turning page after page. Yet the true brilliance of this novel lies in its lyrical prose. Reading it felt like listening to an orchestra. I found myself marking passage after passage, eager to return to those lines again and again.
By the final pages, If The Train Arrives left me in tears — not of sadness, but of joy for life’s small wonders. The story is meticulously researched and compelling, but the act of reading it is its own inspiration. My experience reading this book can be summed up by a line from the book: “It hurt and healed and sang.”
Thank you to the author, Heather Fellin Tierney, for giving me such a paradigm shifting reading experience and allowing me to read the book on behalf of The Gloss Book Club blog.