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The Elsewhere Express: A Novel Audiobook, by Samantha Sotto Yambao Play Audiobook Sample

The Elsewhere Express: A Novel Audiobook

The Elsewhere Express: A Novel Audiobook, by Samantha Sotto Yambao Play Audiobook Sample
Release Date: January 20, 2026
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Read By: Samantha Sotto Yambao Publisher: Random House Audio Listen Time: at 1.0x Speed 7.33 hours at 1.5x Speed 5.50 hours at 2.0x Speed
Release Date: January 20, 2026
Format: Unabridged Audiobook ISBN: 9798217159239

Quick Stats About this Audiobook

Total Audiobook Chapters:

110

Longest Chapter Length:

23:59 minutes

Shortest Chapter Length:

07 seconds

Average Chapter Length:

05:56 minutes

Audiobooks by this Author:

3

Other Audiobooks Written by Samantha Sotto Yambao: > View All...

Publisher Description

When you lose your way in life, the Elsewhere Express just might find you. Step on board the train that may take you to your life’s purpose in this wistful, Ghibli-esque fantasy from the bestselling author of Water Moon.

“A delicately layered dream of a book that glimmers with the promise of hope after grief, The Elsewhere Express will carry you to the stars.”—Molly O’Neill, author of Greenteeth

You can’t buy a ticket for the Elsewhere Express. Appearing only to those whose lives are adrift, it’s a magical train seeming to carry very rare and special cargo: a sense of purpose, peace, and belonging.

Raya is one of those lost souls. She had dreamed of being a songwriter, but when her brother died, she gave up on her dream and started living his instead.

One day on the subway, as her thoughts wander, she’s swept off to the Elsewhere Express. There she meets Q, an intriguing artist who, like her, has lost his place in the world.

Together they find a train full of wonders, from a boarding car that’s also a meadow to a dining car where passengers can picnic on lily pads to a bar where jellyfish and whales swim through pink clouds.

Over the course of their long, strange night on the train, they also discover that it harbors secrets—and danger: A mysterious stranger has stowed away and brought with him a dark, malignant magic that threatens to destroy the train.

But in investigating the stowaway's identity, Raya also finds herself drawing closer to the ultimate question: What is her life's true purpose—and is it a destination the Elsewhere Express can take her to?

★ “A stunning, visual fever dream of a story akin to both the game Spiritfarer and Erin Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea—a character-driven tale wrapped in a sparklingly creative spectacle of a world that inhabits a Studio Ghibli–like chaos even as it comes with a well-organized passenger rulebook.”—Booklist (starred review)

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Awards

  • A January 2026 LibraryReads Pick

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About Samantha Sotto Yambao

Samantha Sotto Yambao is a professional daydreamer, aspiring time traveler, and speculative fiction writer based in Manila, the Philippines. Water Moon is her fifth novel.