A Novel

The Switch

Ralph Johnson

A quiet story about the moment everything changes.

Hardcover · Paperback · eBook · Audiobook

The Switch by Ralph Johnson, book cover: a woman with a suitcase walks along a rain-wet platform toward a grand mountain station

The Story

Every life has a timetable. Hers was perfect.

Margaux Dubreil runs her life the way she runs a balance sheet: precisely, quietly, with nothing left to chance. A rising banker in Zurich, she has always believed there would be time later: for slow mornings, for long weekends, for the journey across Europe that someone once traced for her, city by city.

Then, one ordinary evening, the timetable changes.

The Switch is a novel about the trips we postpone, the lives we almost choose, and the quiet courage it takes to finally board the train.

Some places are worth returning to.

From The Switch
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Praise for The Switch

The Journey

Six cities. One line across a map.

A route traced across Europe, from the canals of Amsterdam to a grand, half-forgotten station high in the Pyrenees.

Map of the rail journey: Zürich to Amsterdam, Prague, Marseille, Barcelona, Canfranc and Carcassonne 0°E 5°E 10°E 15°E 50°N 45°N North Sea Mediterranean Zürich departure Amsterdam Prague Marseille Barcelona Canfranc Carcassonne N
The route, as it was first imagined.
  1. 01

    Amsterdam

    Canals that keep their secrets for anyone willing to look properly.

  2. 02

    Prague

    A hundred spires, and a history that is never quite the obvious one.

  3. 03

    Marseille

    Salt, noise and a working port: a city that refuses to be preserved.

  4. 04

    Barcelona

    Warm stone, late suppers, and evenings that forget to end.

  5. 05

    Canfranc

    A grand station high in the Pyrenees. Not incomplete. Interrupted.

  6. 06

    Carcassonne

    Old walls that have waited a thousand years. They can wait a little longer.

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