Author Samantha Sotto Yambao reimagines what’s between here and elsewhere

On a packed train ride in Japan’s metro, Samantha Sotto Yambao looked up from the crowd of commuters and wondered: if everyone’s body is here but their mind is elsewhere, where do those wandering thoughts go?

The question, which lingered long after the metro doors slid shut, eventually became the spark for The Elsewhere Express, a novel that turns daydreams into destinations and inquires what happens when our thoughts travel farther than we intend.

Fresh from the whirlwind of Water Moon’s success — which saw her land on The New York Times Best Sellers list — Sotto Yambao found herself processing a season of upheaval through story. 

In The Elsewhere Express, grief, purpose, and “excess baggage” take form aboard a mysterious overnight train where lost passengers arrive. These passengers must confront the deeper question behind who they are, what they want, and the very whys of their perseverance and existence.

Perhaps we, readers, are passengers of the Elsewhere Express, too.

A literal train of thought

Sotto Yambao first came up with the idea while aboard Japan’s crowded metro. Refusing to scroll through her phone because she gets dizzy easily during rides, she passed the time and amused herself by observing the train and fellow passengers.

“As I was sitting there, looking around, I thought — even if this train is full, it’s actually empty in a sense that everybody’s mind seems to be elsewhere,” she recounts. “If their thoughts are not here, where do they go? And from here, I imagined a literal train of thought.”

An idea sparked by the play of words, she then began to imagine what a train full of wandering thoughts would look like, where the passengers would come from, and even what the consequences would be should our thoughts travel too far. 

From here, Sotto Yambao started asking important questions that would build the foundation for her story.

“Let’s say we get aboard this train when our thoughts wander. But what if our thoughts travel too far, can we return to our seats?” she recalls asking herself. “More importantly, what is keeping us in our seats in the first place?”

What gives us weight — apart from the physical body — is our “sense of purpose,” says Sotto Yambao. It is what ultimately grounds us. In the case of the Elsewhere Express, this is what keeps us in our designated seats, why we snap out of our reveries and push ourselves to get back to work, to reality.

“If people lose this sense of purpose, then they become light enough to sort of ‘float away’ and find themselves in this train,” she says. 

This idea is what readers will see as they journey aboard this train with the main character Raya, who meets Q, a charming artist slowly losing his vision. 

“Most of the story takes place over one night, so in this period of time, I want to be able to have a good exploration of what the train means, what it needs,” Sotto Yambao shares. “I needed two characters who were similar in a sense that they’re going through loss and grief, but have different attitudes towards the train.”

“Their perspectives are different so they could enrich each other and have an important dialogue,” she adds.

Raya has always dreamed of being a songwriter, but after her brother’s death, grief makes her leave this dream behind to instead carry on with his. Directionless, especially in navigating the painful loss, Raya ends up aboard the Elsewhere Express.

“Raya’s grief is pulling her back from her reality,” explains the author. “She feels that this train is her escape. She believes she deserves to feel guilty, to punish herself, to not be rewarded with anything.”

Q, on the one hand, is an artist dealing with the trauma of his fading eyesight in the real world. It is because of this that he wants to be on the sentient train, because there he is not losing his vision and can remain the artist he’s always wanted to be. 

“The theme here is excess baggage. They both carry excess baggage — we all do — and they have different kinds of excess baggage,” Sotto Yambao says. “It is because of these differences that they complement each other and see common ground.”

On discovering our whys

The journey on the Elsewhere Express is an exploration of not only our whats, but our whys. For the author, it is important for one to understand this “why” because it is what anchors us to our lived realities and where we turn to when we tend to forget or get lost.

For Raya and Q, it is all about finding their purpose — and being able to remember and return to this purpose no matter what happens.

“You know, when someone asks you what you want to be when you grow up, it’s easy to answer. But sometimes, when we achieve [what we want to be], there is still dissatisfaction,” she says. “It is because we achieved [something] without fully knowing the why.”

For Sotto Yambao, purpose does not have to be some grand declaration. More than anything it ought to be a grounding force to our thoughts so they don’t simply drift. Without it, we risk being carried away by our thoughts and emotions.

“Our thoughts and emotions carry so much weight and power,” she says. “If you can’t master them, they will master you. It is you who will be carried off than you being in charge of your life.”

The Elsewhere Express becomes a space where passengers confront the pull between surrendering to their inner worlds and choosing to return to the lives waiting for them. It is what stops and redirects Raya and Q’s lives, and may just as well do the same for the book’s audience, too.

Turning pages and new journeys

The idea for The Elsewhere Express lived in Sotto Yambao’s mind for a long time. Eventually, she pitched the concept to her publisher — the second book to her two-book deal, after Water Moon — which they swiftly accepted.

“I was thinking of what I should write next for my second book, and I immediately thought of this one,” she recalls. “It wasn’t even called The Elsewhere Express then; I called it The Glass Train, because it’s transparent, you know. At least, the initial concept.

“It was an apt idea for a story, especially at the time. I was full of so much emotions and thoughts after Water Moon. It was supposed to be my last book, and it turned my life upside down.”

She remembered her agent sending her a WhatsApp message at 4 am. After tending to their dogs, she could not sleep and felt the urge to check her phone notifications.

“My agent asked if I was awake, and I said yes, I’m awake. Why?” she shares, and admits to feeling nervous. “She asked if she could call, and I thought, if your agent wants to call you at 4 am, you only get two kinds of news: very good news, or very bad. There is no in-between!”

That fateful morning, her agent delivered the news of Water Moon hitting The New York Times Best Sellers list. 

“Life was so crazy,” she shares. “I was so happy. Of course, ‘di na kami natulog (we did not sleep anymore).”

For Sotto Yambao, writing The Elsewhere Express became a great way of processing and coming to terms with her emotions, which, at the time, she described as akin to a “runaway train.”

A mysterious, sentient train, The Elsewhere Express invites readers to explore and stay curious, to examine our lives, and to discover our purpose; it shows us what it looks like to step forward rather than drift away.

Because if our thoughts can take us elsewhere, surely they can lead us home. – Rappler.com