About the Book

"Elizabeth Farnsworth has created a magic potion of prose that has both the deep rhythms and cadences of poetry. A Train Through Time sparkles with the telling of happenings from the real and the imagined. It is a small jewel of graceful writing, insightful observing and memorable reading that will live in the mind of readers forever."

—Jim Lehrer

As a nine-year old, Elizabeth Farnsworth struggles to accept the terrifying loss of her mother. On an unusual journey with her father from their hometown of Topeka, Kansas, to San Francisco, the heartsick child searches for her mother at train stations along the way. Even more, she searches for answers—answers to her mother's death, the speed of time, and a mysteriously locked compartment on the train. Weaving a child's imaginative adventures with vivid memories from reporting in danger zones like Cambodia and Iraq, Farnsworth explores how she became involved in covering mass death and disaster. While she never breaks the tone of a curious investigator, she easily moves between her nine-year-old self and the experienced journalist. Imagination is at play throughout the work, whether it be in her childhood adventures or in her narrative control, always with great purpose. She openly confronts the impact of her childhood on the route her life has taken. And, as she provides one beautifully crafted depiction after another, we share her journey, coming to know the acclaimed journalist as she discovers herself. Counterpoint Press Catalogue, Winter 2017.