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Add a SummaryJulie Orringer's astonishing first novel, eagerly awaited since the publication of her heralded best-selling short-story collection, How to Breathe Underwater ("fiercely beautiful"-- The New York Times; "unbelievably good"--Monica Ali), is a grand love story set against the backdrop of Budapest and Paris, an epic tale of three brothers whose lives are ravaged by war, and the chronicle of one family's struggle against the forces that threaten to annihilate it. Paris, 1937. Andras Lévi, a Hungarian-Jewish architecture student, arrives from Budapest with a scholarship, a single suitcase, and a mysterious letter he has promised to deliver to C. Morgenstern on the rue de Sévigné. As he falls into a complicated relationship with the letter's recipient, he becomes privy to a secret history that will alter the course of his own life. Meanwhile, as his elder brother takes up medical studies in Modena and their younger brother leaves school for the stage, Europe's unfolding tragedy sends each of their lives into terrifying uncertainty. At the end of Andras's second summer in Paris, all of Europe erupts in a cataclysm of war. From the small Hungarian town of Konyár to the grand opera houses of Budapest and Paris, from the lonely chill of Andras's room on the rue des Écoles to the deep and enduring connection he discovers on the rue de Sévigné, from the despair of Carpathian winter to an unimaginable life in forced labor camps and beyond, The Invisible Bridge tells the story of a love tested by disaster, of brothers whose bonds cannot be broken, of a family shattered and remade in history's darkest hour, and of the dangerous power of art in a time of war. Expertly crafted, magnificently written, emotionally haunting, and impossible to put down, The Invisible Bridge resoundingly confirms Julie Orringer's place as one of today's most vital and commanding young literary talents.
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Add a CommentMarvelous book - Hungarian families during WWII - Hard to put down - Recommend highly!! bookwoman & Abby Tabby
Even if Julie Orringer wrote just this one book, it will be enough to make her famous all over the world!
Goodreads Choice Award Best Historical Fiction.
I got half way through the book and was so bored by it, I didn't bother completing it. Author is too wordy and the plot is too slow. There are far better reads in this genre.
This is a great next read after "All the Light We Cannot See" if you are yearning for more dear characters struggling through the hardships and injustices of WWII.
~Erin
Beautifully written book full of hope and heroics. As others have suggested, some editing would sharpen the plot development, it was 'a tad long'. Would highly recommend.
I loved it. I loved the intersection of history and family history. I loved the main character, Andras, and the strong bonds he has with his brothers and family. I loved his relationship with Klara and her daughter Elisabet. I loved the descriptions of Hungarian life; the evocation of time and place. I loved the descriptions of the forced labour camps and the near-impossible journeys people took in the name of survival. I loved it all. Loved it.
This was really really good! This story follows the lives of three brothers and how they start out on their own in the world. You live with the boys as they go to college and the loves that they find. The major themes through out the book are love and family. However it is 1939 in Europe, so it walks you through the beginning of the WWII to the end and beyond. It follows the lives of these boys and how the war really affects a Jewish family during this time period. She made the stories and the characters very personal to the point to where you really connected with the characters and their lives. It has a lot of history in the pages with a large amount of French, Hungarian and German names (places, streets, buildings etc...) that I had trouble pronouncing so I could really picture where they were. That was the only real difficult I had with the book but it was a beautifully written story.
I like this book, once I got past the first 200 pages. The first part of the book dragged on and gave too much detail then it really picked up.
This book is a love story set in Paris and Budapest immediately before, during and immediately after WW II. It is informative about Hungary during the Nazi regime and the way in which the government was able to maintain some independence until towards the end of the war. The book is too long, perhaps because the author is telling the complete story of her family, There are other, better books about this period and in the end it devolves to popular fiction rather than literature. Nevertheless, the story did carry me to the end.
I thought this was a wonderful book. Well worth reading