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Extraños en un tren
La intriga de esta novela está basada en la idea de un crimen sin móviles, un crimen perfecto: dos desconocidos acuerdan asesinar cada uno al enemigo del otro, forjando así una coartada indestructible.
Bruno viaja en el mismo tren que Guy. Empiezan a conversar y Bruno, demoníacamente, fuerza a Guy a desvelar su punto débil, la única grieta de su ordenada existencia: el tipo quisiera librarse de su mujer, que le traicionó y que puede obstaculizar su carrera. Así que le propone un pacto: él matará a su mujer y Guy, a su vez, deberá matar al padre de Bruno, a quien éste odia. Guy rechaza el plan, pero no así Bruno, quien, una vez cumplida su parte, reclama a su horrorizado compañero de viaje que cumpla con la suya.
Adaptada al cine por Alfred Hitchcock, Extraños en un tren lleva a cabo una indagación escalofriante en la perturbada mente de Bruno, pero lo que más le interesa a Patricia Highsmith es la relación entre ambos personajes. Y es ahí donde la novela prefigura la obsesión de su obra futura: ¿hasta qué punto no está la insania de Bruno agazapada también en Guy? ¿Cuán cercana es la amenaza de la irracionalidad en todos nosotros?
Bruno viaja en el mismo tren que Guy. Empiezan a conversar y Bruno, demoníacamente, fuerza a Guy a desvelar su punto débil, la única grieta de su ordenada existencia: el tipo quisiera librarse de su mujer, que le traicionó y que puede obstaculizar su carrera. Así que le propone un pacto: él matará a su mujer y Guy, a su vez, deberá matar al padre de Bruno, a quien éste odia. Guy rechaza el plan, pero no así Bruno, quien, una vez cumplida su parte, reclama a su horrorizado compañero de viaje que cumpla con la suya.
Adaptada al cine por Alfred Hitchcock, Extraños en un tren lleva a cabo una indagación escalofriante en la perturbada mente de Bruno, pero lo que más le interesa a Patricia Highsmith es la relación entre ambos personajes. Y es ahí donde la novela prefigura la obsesión de su obra futura: ¿hasta qué punto no está la insania de Bruno agazapada también en Guy? ¿Cuán cercana es la amenaza de la irracionalidad en todos nosotros?
360 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published January 15, 2025
11 people are currently reading
86 people want to read
About the author
Patricia Highsmith
484 books4,986 followersPatricia Highsmith was an American novelist who is known mainly for her psychological crime thrillers which have led to more than two dozen film adaptations over the years.
She lived with her grandmother, mother and later step-father (her mother divorced her natural father six months before 'Patsy' was born and married Stanley Highsmith) in Fort Worth before moving with her parents to New York in 1927 but returned to live with her grandmother for a year in 1933. Returning to her parents in New York, she attended public schools in New York City and later graduated from Barnard College in 1942.
Shortly after graduation her short story 'The Heroine' was published in the Harper's Bazaar magazine and it was selected as one of the 22 best stories that appeared in American magazines in 1945 and it won the O Henry award for short stories in 1946. She continued to write short stories, many of them comic book stories, and regularly earned herself a weekly $55 pay-check. During this period of her life she lived variously in New York and Mexico.
Her first suspense novel 'Strangers on a Train' published in 1950 was an immediate success with public and critics alike. The novel has been adapted for the screen three times, most notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951.
In 1955 her anti-hero Tom Ripley appeared in the splendid 'The Talented Mr Ripley', a book that was awarded the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere as the best foreign mystery novel translated into French in 1957. This book, too, has been the subject of a number of film versions. Ripley appeared again in 'Ripley Under Ground' in 1970, in 'Ripley's Game' in 1974, 'The boy who Followed Ripley' in 1980 and in 'Ripley Under Water' in 1991.
Along with her acclaimed series about Ripley, she wrote 22 novels and eight short story collections plus many other short stories, often macabre, satirical or tinged with black humour. She also wrote one novel, non-mystery, under the name Claire Morgan , plus a work of non-fiction 'Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction' and a co-written book of children's verse, 'Miranda the Panda Is on the Veranda'.
She latterly lived in England and France and was more popular in England than in her native United States. Her novel 'Deep Water', 1957, was called by the Sunday Times one of the "most brilliant analyses of psychosis in America" and Julian Symons once wrote of her "Miss Highsmith is the writer who fuses character and plot most successfully ... the most important crime novelist at present in practice." In addition, Michael Dirda observed "Europeans honoured her as a psychological novelist, part of an existentialist tradition represented by her own favorite writers, in particular Dostoevsky, Conrad, Kafka, Gide, and Camus."
She died of leukemia in Locarno, Switzerland on 4 February 1995 and her last novel, 'Small g: a Summer Idyll', was published posthumously a month later.
Gerry Wolstenholme
July 2010
She lived with her grandmother, mother and later step-father (her mother divorced her natural father six months before 'Patsy' was born and married Stanley Highsmith) in Fort Worth before moving with her parents to New York in 1927 but returned to live with her grandmother for a year in 1933. Returning to her parents in New York, she attended public schools in New York City and later graduated from Barnard College in 1942.
Shortly after graduation her short story 'The Heroine' was published in the Harper's Bazaar magazine and it was selected as one of the 22 best stories that appeared in American magazines in 1945 and it won the O Henry award for short stories in 1946. She continued to write short stories, many of them comic book stories, and regularly earned herself a weekly $55 pay-check. During this period of her life she lived variously in New York and Mexico.
Her first suspense novel 'Strangers on a Train' published in 1950 was an immediate success with public and critics alike. The novel has been adapted for the screen three times, most notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951.
In 1955 her anti-hero Tom Ripley appeared in the splendid 'The Talented Mr Ripley', a book that was awarded the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere as the best foreign mystery novel translated into French in 1957. This book, too, has been the subject of a number of film versions. Ripley appeared again in 'Ripley Under Ground' in 1970, in 'Ripley's Game' in 1974, 'The boy who Followed Ripley' in 1980 and in 'Ripley Under Water' in 1991.
Along with her acclaimed series about Ripley, she wrote 22 novels and eight short story collections plus many other short stories, often macabre, satirical or tinged with black humour. She also wrote one novel, non-mystery, under the name Claire Morgan , plus a work of non-fiction 'Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction' and a co-written book of children's verse, 'Miranda the Panda Is on the Veranda'.
She latterly lived in England and France and was more popular in England than in her native United States. Her novel 'Deep Water', 1957, was called by the Sunday Times one of the "most brilliant analyses of psychosis in America" and Julian Symons once wrote of her "Miss Highsmith is the writer who fuses character and plot most successfully ... the most important crime novelist at present in practice." In addition, Michael Dirda observed "Europeans honoured her as a psychological novelist, part of an existentialist tradition represented by her own favorite writers, in particular Dostoevsky, Conrad, Kafka, Gide, and Camus."
She died of leukemia in Locarno, Switzerland on 4 February 1995 and her last novel, 'Small g: a Summer Idyll', was published posthumously a month later.
Gerry Wolstenholme
July 2010
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 8, 2025
Me ha encantado y me ha enganchado un montón. Me ha mantenido intrigada todo el tiempo sobre lo que pasará y he conectado mucho con los personajes. Me encanta como escribe esta autora y sin duda me quiero leer todos sus libros. Recomendado sobre todo si te gusta la novela negra y de misterio!!
February 7, 2025
Francamente entretenido. De esos libros que dejas y estás deseando volver a coger.
Como la edición es nueva, o al menos ha cambiado de aspecto, simplemente decir que me ha gustado -como todos los compactos de Anagrama- el papel, su tacto y grosor. El tamaño de la letra y la distribución de sus párrafos facilitan su lectura ágil. ¡Buen trabajo a los involucrados!
Como la edición es nueva, o al menos ha cambiado de aspecto, simplemente decir que me ha gustado -como todos los compactos de Anagrama- el papel, su tacto y grosor. El tamaño de la letra y la distribución de sus párrafos facilitan su lectura ágil. ¡Buen trabajo a los involucrados!
July 9, 2025
¿Recuerdas esos veranos de piscina, siestas y libro al que te enganchabas hasta devorarlo? No se leía autoficción, ni ensayos, ni distopías, en esos veranos brillantes y largos. Se leían libros como este.
Venga, parte un poco de sandía fresquita, date un baño, y vuelve a ver qué pasa con Bruno y con Guy.
Hasta los asesinatos se llevan de otra manera si te huele la piel a vacaciones.
Venga, parte un poco de sandía fresquita, date un baño, y vuelve a ver qué pasa con Bruno y con Guy.
Hasta los asesinatos se llevan de otra manera si te huele la piel a vacaciones.
March 26, 2025
Parece que el mismo Charles te secuestra en una espiral de lectura hasta que aniquilas el libro y te cuestionas tu propia sanidad. Pensando en si deberías seguir leyendo.
March 25, 2025
Aburridísimo 😐 Intentan hacer una critica social al final del libro, sin sentido. Qué pena, porque lo empecé con muchas ganas…
September 12, 2025
3’5
Gay
Gay
September 16, 2025
Muy entretenido, te mantiene enganchado a lo largo de la historia.
October 5, 2025
3,5 me esperaba otro final! que siguiera construyendo tensión y tensión pero estuvo bueno! Un thriller más convencional
October 27, 2025
Me gustó mucho el comienzo pero a partir de la mitad se me ha hecho más tedioso y repetitivo.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews