The Man from London (Romans Durs)

A train signalman, who literally watches the world through glass, is jolted from passivity in this riveting tragedy of male alienation.

From his elevated glass cabin at the ferry terminal, train signalman Louis Maloin can survey the whole of Dieppe. For thirty years of working the night shift, he hasn’t varied his routine. He smokes his pipe, drinks his coffee and brandy, and watches people. Then, one fateful winter’s night, he witnesses a senseless murder. At a stroke, Maloin’s status as an apathetic bystander is upended, and he knows nothing can ever be the same. But will his future be happier or bleaker, and can he tilt the scales either way? A provocative classic of philosophical fiction, The Man from London poses that most troubling of questions: If free will is an illusion, who or what is pulling our strings?