Train Lord: The Astonishing True Story of One Man's Journey to Getting His Life Back On Track

by Oliver Mol

An arresting memoir about a 10-month migraine, a recovery in Australia, and a job on the railway when there were no other options

Oliver Mol was a successful, clever, healthy twenty-five-year old. Then one day the migraine started. For ten months, the pain was constant, exacerbated by writing, reading, using computers, looking at phones or anything with a screen. Slowly, Oliver began to disappear.

One evening, Oliver googled the only thing he could think 'full-time job, no experience, Sydney'. An ad for a train guard appeared. For two years Oliver watched others live their lives, observing the intimacy of strangers brought together briefly and connected by the steady march of time.

Exquisitely written and bravely told, Train Lord is a searingly personal yet hugely relatable book, which asks what happens when your sense of self is suddenly destroyed, and how you get it back.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir

272 pages, Paperback

Published September 12, 2023

About the author

Oliver Mol is the author of Train Lord (Penguin Michael Joseph, forthcoming) and the critically acclaimed novel Lion Attack! (Scribe Publications, 2015). He was the inaugural winner of the Scribe Nonfiction Prize for Young Writers, and is currently a Marten Bequest Scholar for Prose through the Australian Council of the Arts.

In 2020, the stage show of Train Lord won a best theatre award at Adelaide Fringe and proved a runaway success with a sold out season at the Sydney Fringe Festival. Oliver grew up dividing his time between Texas and Australia, and now lives in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Reviews

[Ellie Spencer (catching up from hiatus) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes you manage to find a book that truly speaks to your soul. The kind of book that you can’t imagine having lived without reading. This was that book for me.

Train Lord is a memoir. The author’s life was drastically changed by chronic pain. He manages to get a job working on trains and eventually things start changing.

This is probably the strangest format for a book I have read. It is broken up within the chapters into small chunks, which are each numbered. At first I hated this, I had a deep sense of regret for agreeing to read this. I was absolutely certain it wasn’t for me. But, that quickly changed and the second time I (reluctantly) picked the book up, I could not put it down! The format took some getting used to but I found it helped me to fly through the pages! Often you end up wondering what parts are true and what parts are fictional. I still have no idea, but I don’t mind that!

I struggle a lot due to disabilities and chronic pain, and because of that, I truly connected to this book. I am the same age that the author was when his chronic pain started, and the pain has changed my life in numerous ways too. I found myself nodding and taking notes of so many parts. It almost felt like I was reading my own inner thoughts. The mental impact of chronic pain should never be downplayed, and I loved the rawness with which this book discussed it. I had tears in my eyes towards the end, I was full of pride for the author and hope for my own future. This is definitely a book that I will be picking up again and again.

I recommend this memoir to any chronic pain sufferers, fans of memoirs, or loved ones of those suffering from chronic pain. But please be aware that it takes some getting used to. I want to thank Michael Joseph Books and Oliver Mol for allowing me to read an ARC of this book and give my personal thoughts.

[Rob Sedgwick · Rating 2 out of 5]

What an annoying book. The frustrating thing is he writes quite well and it could have been an interesting account of his time on the trains in Sydney. Instead, it's a sprawling, repetitive account of his "migraine" that jumps back and forwards in time. Every time you think that's it and he's going to get on with the story then it goes over the same ground again. Read the first 30 pages and the last 30 pages and you won't miss much.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite sure what I think of this book. It was definitely something and it definitely made me feel things but I’m not sure if they were good or not. Will have to come back and review properly when I’ve had more time to think.

[Emma book blogger Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oliver Mol open up about how he suffered 10 long months with migraines. How he got through it and how he struggled with them. Amazing story. The story does not flow in order goes back and forth but this does not seem to matter because you can keep up . I thought his reading style was really easy to get into and you could really feel his pain and loneliness through the book. It definitely is interesting read. Thank you Michael Joseph books for letting me review this book

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Was really hoping there'd be more trains

[Edi · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautifully written, raw and funny. I loved this book so much.

[Darcy Keogh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has both moved and educated me and I feel grateful to have read it. I considered myself naive about the experience of chronic pain before reading this moving and hilarious memoir. However the literary skills used by Mol made the experience feel both close and human. While the book had me gasping over the hardships experienced by Mol, he also has a clever way of noticing and bringing lightness and humour. One particular story had me oscillating between laughter and tears for the whole chapter in a way that felt completely in keeping with a young person trying to navigate sex, parties and friends alongside pain and mental illness. Highly recommend this to anyone wanting a deeply human story.

[R Doss · Rating 5 out of 5]

The intertwined story telling made for great reading. Harrowing at times and cannot imagine the pain he went through. On a lighter note, my only disappointment is Ollie not working on the trains any more, as the stories he picked up on the journey are uniquely Aussie and hilarious. I didn’t realise I’d be so curious as to what life as a train security guard would be like. Go on Ollie pick up some shifts! 😆

[Tom Os · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be a really thoughtful and interesting reflection on the author's life and on the significant impact chronic pain can have in all parts of your life.

Oliver's writing is elegant and straightforward and a real pleasure to read - he presents small vignettes that are sometimes highly relatable and other times very foreign but felt by the reader.

I cried a couple of times reading the book and finished it with a big sigh. It's a great read that I finished in a few hours.

[Maz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oliver Mol has such a beautiful and interesting style of writing. I'm not really sure how I feel about this book, which I think is a good thing in its own way. There was a lot of heart and humour in this book.

[Renita D'Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Illuminating

[Vicki Mol · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book takes you on a fascinating journey inside the mind of someone who has experienced chronic pain and, in the depths of despair, discovers how to heal themselves. I laughed out loud at so many incidents that I could relate to, and on the next page found myself wiping away tears as I read about his anguish and the struggle, shared by so many, with chronic pain. I read this book in one sitting, I couldn’t put it down.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oliver has attempted a great feat in writing a memoir where not much happens except that he works on a train and is in a lot of pain with no end in sight. The book was a bit long and repetitive, but the prose was something to behold. When I got to the end of this book I literally got a weird high that felt like I had taken drugs, so make of that what you will.

It was unfortunately way too long for my ADHD brain, and at points I wondered if my kindle had downloaded wrong because I was thinking “haven’t I already this part?” Sadly, as much empathy as I have for his chronic pain, his life just isn't that interesting for a memoir, even if he does dabble in fun little unreliable narrator vibes, which gave the story a bit more pizzazz, but not quite enough. That being said, if Oliver ever wrote fiction, he would be unstoppable.

4 stars for the writing alone. Oliver Mol is something else.

[Lanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The only person who gets to control how you feel is you. Most people spend their entire lives hurting, or being hurt, but that hurting only brings more hurt until your whole world becomes pain.”

[AD - PR Product] Huge thank you to Michael Joseph Books for my proof copy of Train Lord which will be published on 21st July!

Oliver Mol was a successful, clever, healthy 25 year old. Then one day the migraine started. For 10 months, the pain was constant, exacerbated by writing, reading, using computers, looking at phones or anything with a screen. Slowly he became a writer who could no longer write, and a person who could no longer communicate with the modern world. Train Lord is a personal yet universal book, which asks what happens when your sense of self is suddenly destroyed, and how you get it back.

This memoir had the perfect amount of funny and quite frankly, bizarre moments that were balanced out with some truly heartbreaking, lump in your throat kinda moments. And I really enjoyed every second of it.

I think anyone who struggled with ill health or chronic pain will be able to relate to Oliver’s story. The impact that ill health can have on you mentally is something that is different for everyone and not always understood but this book will have you feeling seen in some way or another.

I actually ended up reading the whole book in a day, ironically most of the time I spent reading was on the train during my long commute to work. I learnt some fascinating things about trains and train guards which will stick with me for a long time too.

It’s an emotional true story of trust, pain, becoming lost, and finding a way back to yourself despite it all and I would definitely recommend it to those who suffer with their health and especially any non-fiction fans out there!

[Jane Withers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has stuck with me for days post reading it, which was done so in one big flurry as I found I could not put the book down - Oliver’s writing just left me wanting more and I found myself as if almost thrown around on a roller coaster medley of stories through his past, thoughts and then the next moment you’re back on the train.
Whether you have experienced chronic pain or not, I think this is the most beautiful and humbling read and I would recommend it to all as in the end what has stuck with me is that we are alive, we make mistakes, we hurt and we feel but we are human and there is a world of honesty and beauty to that.
Train Lord broke my heart and made me laugh.
I’ll be reading it again in the near future.

[Emma Hardy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really unusual read. As someone who has just started train commuting again, I thought that this would be the perfect companion. Its written in quite a streams of consciousness way but did draw me in. A stand out read.

[Ian Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

TRAIN LORD by Oliver Mol
I now know what it’s like to be a pinball, bouncing around in different directions, heading off who knows where, having impact and being impacted upon…..and then there’s the pain.
Oliver is not your typical author, no, Oliver is raw and shoots from the hip and appears to be unaware of his affect upon others.
This volume is centred around his horrific fight with a ten month migraine, his relationships with women and his (fortunate I suspect) job as a train guard. Sequential it’s not. Oliver goes from decade, back to another decade and then halfway in between. In his mind I suspect it’s relatively seamless but, as a reader, you need to have your wits about you just to follow what’s going on.
Then there’s the things that aren’t explained; such as what he’s doing in Sydney, why he’s on the Central Coast, what job did his father lose in Texas that saw the family end up in Canberra and where does Brisbane fit into all of this? Oliver doesn’t have a compass that suggests that maybe people would like the dots joined.
You might glean that I didn’t enjoy this book, you’d glean wrong. A roller coaster ride into a drug addled world (some prescribed, many not) I found immensely interesting. How and why he’s still alive could accurately be described as minor miracles.
Oh, and there’s some hilarious moments as well; like the train driver who attended work with a cane and heavy sunglasses and used to tap his way to the driver’s cabin and ask someone near the driver’s door, “Could you tell me which way the train is pointing?”, before entering.
He believes he’s a writer, which is just as well, because I can understand why others would find his style difficult but, I found that slipping into his different world full of four letter words was very entertaining. His devil may care approach to his job as a train guard enlightening (I’ll never ride a train again without checking out the guard) and I’ll never stop wondering just how it is that he’s still alive.
Coming from a family riddled with mental health issues it really should not surprise that he’s had difficulties in life and I’m sure his cocaine habit and casual experimentation with the opposite sex haven’t helped lay down a level platform for life and living.
There’s also the issue of continuity. We’re given the impression that money is an issue yet he’s off snowboarding in Argentina, pops up in Canberra, Gosford, flying off to Spain, now living in Georgia??? There’s no narrative to explain how he got to so many places. Call me picky, but I just would have liked to know why.
Another thing, that didn’t bother me but might others, is that “the” is not the most common word. No indeed, the “I”s have it in almost every sentence and generally more than once.
It’s the rawness the got me in, made me want to turn pages every night. You could almost suffer along with him but know it’s a different world to that which you’re familiar with. I wish Oliver well, but am left wondering, why Tbilisi?

[Bistra Ivanova · Rating 4 out of 5]

This summer, Darling and I did a 4-day hiking trip in Georgia. Every night we slept in different guest houses and shared the table for dinner and breakfast with people from all across the world. One evening, we got to know the wonderful Oliver Mol and his beautiful friends. He was really charming and clever and he introduced himself as a writer so I was very curious to read one of his books.

The Train Lord is kind of a diary book where it seems as if he put on paper his life, thoughts, ideas, and most of all, issues and dreams so he can set himself free. The book is full of "I am telling you this", "This is what happened", etc. where you see an effort to speak the truth, regardless of how uncomfortable it might be. Oli seems like a deeply troubled soul with so many dramas and problems... Honestly, I hadn't imagined that a man could cry so much. He must have suffered so much...

Oli wanted to be a writer and this ambition preoccupied his mind to unhealthy levels. Just when he published his first book and started to get attention, he got a severe migraine attack which lasted for 10 months and caused him so much pain. He hid it from his friends and parents and didn't really seek (enough) medical support. The book is an attempt to make people UNDERSTAND and (according to me) to BE SEEN for who he really is. The migraine left him unable to read or write. He felt that might have been the end of his writer's career so he got a job as a train conductor where he found structure and peace - at least for a while.

About 90% of the books is a diary with dramas, reflections and memories and 10% - with train stories. Most of the time I felt uncomfortable reading all these gibberish and unsolved traumas and often thought: Go to therapy, man, go to therapy! :-)) There was a lot of work with his inner child to be done...

In a way, it felt as if the book describes the lost internet generation who was supposed to have a great life because it had everything... except life meaning and goals... I also found a piece of me there so I enjoyed the read. I must say that if I hadn't met Oli I might have abandoned it :-) The drama was really a lot!

However, the Guardian thinks differently - https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...

Thank you, Oli, for letting me be part of your world! Good luck, man!

[Anthea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read as an audiobook (read by the author)

My own perspective (chronic headache coming up 13 years) tied me down when reading this one. I think my relating to aspects of the story actually made it harder to engage, and I kept thinking about giving it to others to read. Confusing!
I think there’s plenty the author held back, another thing I recognised in the writing. So many questions left hanging about relationships and stories that began in this book but never felt whole. Perhaps that’s the point.
There’s some redemption in the ending however, and I felt like a lot of that was honest and real - and it gave me hope for the current path of “trying” in on in relation to unlocking my own issue - where my body is screaming a message I just haven’t been able to hear yet.
Is it really possible to paint with words the experience of living with headache or migraine? I want more people to know - and to remember, but not to make them feel any which way.. rather than to leave space for those of us who have to live it.
Ultimately the book was ok, I might be processing how I felt about it for a while longer.

[Daisy Blacklock · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.4 out of 5 stars

Train Lord by Oliver Mol is a powerful and eye-opening memoir.

It was so well-written, and you can really tell that Oliver has a way with words. I felt I could really connect with Oliver through his writing, and it was such an interesting read! It tells the story of his ten-month migraines, life working as a train guard and his journey to recovery as a writer.

The writing and emotion invoked through the writing was so moving and such a pleasure to read. It was powerful, intense, vivid and raw – everything you want from a memoir.

The account of the events weren’t in order, and the story does go back and forth quite a bit, but most of the time it was okay to keep up with. Towards the end, it did get a little bit repetitive, but the last 50 pages or so brought it back and finished strongly.

You can’t help but be transfixed by this beauty of a book.

Thank you Oliver for my copy.

[jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I picked up this book and read the first page I thought it was fiction. A couple of chapters in, I thought to myself "what an interesting choice the author has made to name the main character after themself". A few pages later a lightbulb went off in my head and I googled "Train Lord Oliver Mol true story??" and discovered that it had been nonfiction the whole time.
That's all to say, the book reads like fiction (in the best way). It's artfully written. The subject matter of the trains is shown in a very whimsical way. I wasn't sure how to feel about the lack of quotation marks to begin with - it's usually something I dislike in a book as it makes it much harder to read and feels like a choice made for the sake of being artful rather than an artful choice made for a deeper meaning. But in this book I found it fitted well - conveyed a cosiness, a familiarity, a candid conversation with the reader.
An enjoyed book.

[Leo G · Rating 5 out of 5]

While i was meant to be sitting my final exams I was in hospital suffering from a migraine, one that took more than a month to go. A month where the pain was obstructive and debilitating, where in order to even pretend to function I had to be on so many painkillers which in fact ended up making the pain worse. I was told to lie in a dark room no phone, no reading and an ice pack on my head. When the pain was at its lowest I could escape through audio books, on a whim I listened to train lord, I did not read its description beyond the word migraine this book spoke to me on a level no doctors or friends could, it was simply understanding, unfiltered and raw, I wasnt alone, this book allowed me to save myself. It made me belive things could get better. Oliver wrote the book he needed when he was experiencing his migraine. Train lord is funny and horrifying because it's truth, and the truth fucking hurts.

[Tilly Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual rating 3.5.

You’ll probably know by now that I don’t review many memoirs, but I saw so many people raving about this when it first came out then when Oliver reached out to see if I’d like a copy I had to say yes!

I’m not going to “review” this, because I don’t think anyone can review another’s person’s experiences. But what I will say is that this was beautifully written, obvious from the very first page that Oliver was born to write - and that’s what made the rest of his story so devastating, knowing he had this gift but could no longer pursue it due to endless pain. This memoir is moving, relatable and incredibly funny at times despite the pain - having spent many a trip on an Aussie train I can only see the experiences Oliver describes too clearly! It blurs the lines between reality and imagination until there were times I wasn’t sure what happened or didn’t, which only makes me keen to read some fiction from Oliver in the future too 🙌

[Jared Richards · Rating 4 out of 5]

oh baby i cried a lot reading this one

hits that perfect spot reminiscent of steve roggenb*ck's best, twee and earnest without being overbearing. not for everyone/i'm sure a lot of people would find this annoying, but the honesty of it really shines thru

really, really feel for oliver, there's nothing quite as awful as feeling weak and pathetic as he feels throughout this, fighting a never-ending migraine and a lot of internal issues of worthlessness and pointlessness as a writer/artist

one esp for anyone who fights against their body's decay and self-destruction :)

makes me want to revisit lion attack!

pleasantly surprised: knew i'd like this, but didn't expect to love it and have to regularly put it down and let out a big sad sigh

[Simone · Rating 2 out of 5]

I so badly wanted to love this book! I heard Oliver Mol speaking on a local Melbourne radio station and thought the book sounded great, so I ordered it the very same day. Mol is definitely a strong writer but I just found myself a little bored. The book was repetitive and he wrote very long sentences and this drove me a little crazy and so on…It just didn’t click with me. I REALLY wanted it to click. I mean, some parts were interesting but I found his constant sobbing a little indulgent. Maybe I’m being too harsh. Maybe I need to read it again. *shrug*

[Jon Kenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cry from the heart or maybe from the head as it's about the author's experience of a ten month long migraine. It's a lot more than that of course and it's sad, funny perceptive and poignant along the way. The parts about working on the railway reminded me a bit of Bukowski's adventures at the Post Office although, unlike Bukowski, Mol ends up enjoying his stint. Another similarity to Bukowski is the unflinching honesty which doesn't hesitate to show the author in a bad light at times. As a fellow migraine sufferer I appreciated its brutality but also enjoyed its humour and optimism.

[Nick Upton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've seen many reviews of this book which were unnecessarily harsh and, in my opinion, quite short-sighted. It is not badly written, but it is written differently to anything I've read previously. It's chaotic and somewhat disjointed; exactly how a story of this nature ought to be. It's raw, emotional, it pulls at your heart with an elastic band and allows said band to twang, slapping into your heart, leaving a lasting mark.

Treat yourself and give it a read. I enjoyed it immensely and genuinely wish Oliver well. I hope he's in a better place than he was back then!

[Sam Baijer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried to do this, I really did. Rarely do I not finish a book, and I pushed through this as far as I could. But my lord, this was absolutely punishing. The prose, the disconnect, the tone, the constant pity. A thousand commas before you even finish a sentence. It seemingly goes absolutely nowhere.

I was laying in bed just now trying to chew through more of this thing and by page 55 I shut it down and frisbeed it across the room. At least that brought me some enjoyment.

[Savannah Womal]

The book was this painful to read- it is basically a self indulgent tangent that paints the author in an unflattering and immature light. For the most part, it is poorly written, repetitive and does a terrible job of jumping from one story or period of time to another. This book could have been about 200 pages less ( please note it is 254 pages).

[Elizabeth Winterbottom · Rating 2 out of 5]

“I cried and I cried and I cried ..” And that wasn’t just the author, saying over and over again. It was me. Enduring this endlessly repetitive, confusing and depressing story. My bad I guess … I came here for anecdotes on Sydney trains but instead it’s a story of struggle with pain that seemed to have no resolution. Glad that’s finished. Gave ME a headache.