Moonlight Express : Around the World By Night Train

Shortlisted for travel book of the year at the 2026 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards
Shortlisted for travel book of the year at the 2026 Inspire Global Media Awards
A Financial Times readers book of the year

"Nobody writes trains like Monisha Rajesh" - Irvine Welsh
"Full of the stuff of life" - Spectator
"Travel writing heaven" - William Dalrymple
"I loved it" - Joanne Harris

From the award-winning author of "Around the World in 80 Trains," this is a romantic and hugely entertaining tour of some of the world's most spectacular night trains.

The night train: headlamps ablaze, passengers boarding after sunset and leaving before sunrise, slipping in and out of compartments unseen. From Austria's Nightjet to the Caledonian Sleeper and the Santa Claus Express, journalist Monisha Rajesh invites us on an adventure aboard the world's most wondrous moonlit journeys on the tracks.

Along the way, she samples reindeer stew in Scandinavia, retraces the original route of the Orient Express, sips on pisco sours aboard the Andean Explorer, and watches the sun rise over the Potomac River on the Silver Meteor to New York.

By turns romantic and hilarious, "Moonlight Express" brings us along for the ride and drops us back at the platform before sunrise.