Midnight Train to Trieste

"Stan bought an open second class ticket to Belgrade, and packed food to reduce expenses. The Yugoslavian landscape was dreary; in winter, the animals were in the barn and the fields were blanketed with snow."
Midnight Train to Trieste tells the story of Stan Ivy, an American university student on his first globetrotting experience through Europe. He was unprepared for his struggles with a near rape in his train compartment, local sadistic soldiers, and a gypsy globetrotter who altered his perceptions about the world. This is a poignant tale that generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy into the intense nature of human frailty.