For a course next semester, I might use Brian Selznick's graphic novel "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" (2007) and Martin Scorsese's film adaption "Hugo" (2011), which are about a boy living alone in a Paris train station. I know the film well, but I had never read Selznick's book, so I read it on the train today, captivated by Selznick's drawings. When I finished the book, I took out Jacqueline Harpman's novel "Orlanda" (1996), which a student wants to write a paper about—and I loved the coincidence that it begins in a Paris train station: "La scène inaugurale se déroule à Paris, en face de la Gare du Nord [...]." (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 21 December 2025)