Pipi is an average girl from a small town in the early 1980s-a little shy, a bit lonely, and very curious. She loves her home and family but dreams of more. She wants to see the world, and she has a train ticket to get her there. When a chance encounter with an eccentric homeless man puts her on board the Midnight Express, she discovers a world rich with the magic of nature.
The Midnight Express is not your normal train-it's more Wild West than modern ones. It has a compartment just for chocolate and a magical museum. And behind a hidden door marked for magicians only, the mysterious stranger awaits.
The mysterious stranger is a tall, dark skinned middle-aged man with a long handheld wooden cane, who is wearing a cape and a vest bearing a hodgepodge of various items. He calls himself a wizard and speaks of how imagination and willpower can shape reality and of the dark forces that now threaten the magical community.
Fans of Harry Potter and C. S. Lewis's works will delight in this fresh tale of spiritual quest, magic and mystery. Where imagination is magic, nothing happens by chance, and the most curious journey of all is one of self-discovery.
About the Author: Born in Turin, Italy, in 1983, Francesco Mantica won the Grinzane Cavour Prize for journalism at the age of fourteen. Inspired by a childhood love of writing and travel, Mantica attended universities around the world-from Milan, Rome, and Spain to Berkeley, California-and graduated with two degrees, one in journalism and one in economics for arts, culture, and communication. Today Mantica works in the travel industry. The author's lifelong passion for reading and writing yielded this enchanting inaugural book, Pipi and the Midnight Express, a fantastical journey of magic, spirituality, and self-discovery.
