Salt signs Ashton's 'relentless' novel set on a commuter train

Salt has signed The Way to Work, a "mesmerising" novel from Sean Ashton. 

Director Jen Hamilton-Emery acquired world rights including North America directly from the author. The book will be published on 15th April 2023. 

The publisher wrote: "Have you ever boarded your morning commute and wished you’d never arrive at your destination? That is what happens to the protagonist of The Way to Work. Having boarded what he assumes to be his usual 8:08 a.m. service, he soon discovers that all is not as it first seemed. 

"Does this train stop at any station? Do the carriages ever come to an end? And where is the colleague he thought he saw, as he took his place in the quiet coach? Our narrator reflects on his job as salesman for a cat litter manufacturer as he wanders down-train in search of answers – yet the sliding doors that close behind him appear to be malfunctioning, and every person he meets seems to remember very little of their past."

Ashton said: "The novel sprang from my experience as a weekly commuter from London to Leeds. Returning on the evening train, I bumped into a man in the aisle who had clearly come back from a business conference of some kind, for he had a paper name badge gummed to his suit jacket. He seemed like the opposite of me, and yet also my equivalent, the person I could have been in another life."

Hamilton-Emery added: "Sean Ashton’s mesmerising novel will change, even haunt, your view of the daily train commute. It’s an unforgettable journey that will surprise readers, carriage by extraordinary carriage."