Paris, Christmas 1933. The Strasbourg express crashes into a local train outside Paris, leaving wreckage and broken bodies strewn on the tracks. On board is Gilles Malroux. In the chaos and confusion, he swaps his identity papers with a stranger, steals a suitcase and vanishes.

Gilles' sister Camille, notified of the accident, rushes to the hospital to find a stranger wrapped in bandages in her brother's place. In her desperate search to find Gilles, she must now unravel a web of lies and corruption. Who is this man, the one who holds the key to everything, and the one Camille finds she is learning to love? And what danger is she racing towards?

The Crash is a masterpiece of fiction: intricately researched, beautifully written, and both a deeply moving love story and nuanced examination of identity and survival.