Reading list · Places in a book
The real places in Night Train to Lisbon
Every location below is a real place Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier is actually set in — verified against the book and mapped so you can read your way there before you go.
2 real places · grounded to Night Train to Lisbon
What real places is Night Train to Lisbon set in?
Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier is set in 2 real places you can visit: Lisbon and Bern — each a location the novel actually unfolds in.
- Lisbon
- Bern (Switzerland)
-
Lisbon
Gregorius traces the doctor-poet Amadeu de Prado through Lisbon - the Bairro Alto, the bookshops off the Rua Augusta, and the hills above the Tagus - piecing a vanished life together from the places it was lived.
-
Bern
Switzerland
The novel opens on the Kirchenfeldbruecke in Bern, where Gregorius meets a mysterious Portuguese woman in the rain, walks out of his Latin class, and boards the night train that gives the book its name.
Reading your way into Night Train to Lisbon
Pascal Mercier's novel is a journey book: a Swiss classics teacher abandons his life mid-lesson and rides south into Portugal, chasing a dead writer through the streets of the capital. Its two poles - the city he leaves and the city he loses himself in - are both real, and both walkable.