‘We both know nothing’s all right, but when I tell you it will be, you take it. If you don’t, it’s because you’re holding out for another outcome altogether.’ 

Peaces is the latest addition to Helen Oyeyemi’s repertoire of electric, genre-subverting fiction. Stepping from a sleepy village station platform onto an eccentric train for their non-honeymoon, Otto and Xavier Shin embark upon a journey they could never have predicted, even in their wildest fever dreams. Oyeyemi takes mischievous delight in pulling her readers along as passengers; together with the couple and their travelling companion Árpád XXX (a mongoose with illustrious ancestry), they navigate a disorienting series of events, with the feeling of hurtling towards a foregone conclusion without the faintest idea what it will be.  

The train in question, The Lucky Day, is anthropomorphised to the degree of almost becoming a character itself and serves as an ‘incubator for intense experiences.’ Its miscellaneous carriages house a postal office, portrait gallery, glass greenhouse and, upon exploration, the pair encounter three other travellers: Allegra and Laura, both railway staff of sorts, and the reclusive Ava Kapoor, permanent locomotive resident and theremin prodigy. Following a number of startling coincidences, Xavier and Otto begin to realise that the trip is not all it seems; as long-forgotten memories surface and mysterious figures from their pasts materialise, they endeavour to uncover truths beyond the smoke and mirrors.  

Oyeyemi rejects the label of magical realism in favour of extra-fictional, asking or rather compelling, her reader to temporarily suspend their disbelief. Sardonic wit and satire cut through fanciful notions at refreshingly regular intervals – ‘not even Coke … Pepsi. The preferred beverage of souls damaged beyond repair’ – and the author’s unique descriptive technique is captivating – ‘the colour of Darjeeling tea in the fourth minute of brewing’. I was simultaneously reminded of Murder on the Orient Express, Wes Anderson’s handiwork and Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (less obvious perhaps but the gothic tint and niche character interests are all there!). A serious undertone also permeates the pages; Oyeyemi’s unyielding scrutiny of the human condition is punctuated by echoes of imperialism, as the engine’s bygone days of tea-smuggling are uncovered – ‘I’m sure almost no one deludes themselves that all their ancestors were decent. Pick a vein, any vein: mud mixed with lightning flows through, an unruly fusion of bad blood and good.’ 

A thousand other stories conceal themselves behind that of Otto, Xavier and Árpád, from the emerald-swallowing habits of the Kapoor forebears to the Parisian guardians with outlandish ties to international crime syndicates. This novel has iceberg tendencies, hiding 90% beneath the surface as each sentence begs more questions than it answers, stirring up a mesmerising cocktail of whimsy, suspicion and intrigue. 

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Issue 23 of The Indie Insider – Travel, Journeys, Migrations – is out now!

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