How to measure a books success (Night Train to Lisbon review)

‘To stand at that point in time and go in a different direction to the one that has made us who we are.’ This is just one of the beautiful sentences that drew me in at the beginning of the movie Night Train To Lisbon. These words and the silky smooth voice of Jeremy Irons left me pondering many things including how we should measure a books success.

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Directed by Billie August, the movie centres on Professor Raimund Gregorius (Jeremy Irons). On his was to class the professor sees a woman in a red coat standing on a bridge ready to jump.

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Saving her he takes her back to his class, but within moments he sees her running across the school yard.

Leaving his students he goes to find her and return the coat she left behind. But his attempt is futile so he is left searching the coat pockets for information. There he finds a book … a small novel about the resistance.

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Beautifully written he dreams of writing with such purpose, such passionate and instantly sets out to find out more about the author. First stop, an old bookshop where he learns that only 100 copies were ever printed.

While there he discovers something else in the coat pocket … a ticket on the night train to Lisbon … leaving in 15 minutes. A decision has to be made.

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The scenery matches the beauty of the words.

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Jeremy Irons puts in a great ‘tortured soul’ performance as usual. The movie speaks to the life you’re living, are whether you’re making the most of it …

For all the authors out there it’s also a reminder that sales are not the only way to measure the success of a book, what about it’s impact? A book, even one that sold only 100 copies, can have an impact. It can draw one person to suicide, or another to walk out on their job and onto a train to Lisbon. What if one of those 100 copies made it into your hands, what effect would it have?