In the same vein, a number of reviewers compared it to Dr. So, while that critique might be a bit haughty (I think it came from a foreign newspaper), it does describe the book in a way that tells something about what it will be like to read.

Same for American readers – audiences exist for both “beach reads” and more serious (literature) books. When authors are novel-mills, under contract for a book per year, not so much. In my experience, length and depth in a novel occur when there is intent for them to, even among American authors. I’m not sure I know, or if the reviewer knows, what an American novel is, but the implication was that this book is more in depth and fleshed out than most ‘American’ books.

The story is told from a Hungarian point of view, which is far from the norm and that slant was interesting.īefore I bought the book, I read a review that said Orringer had written a novel that was European in approach, therefore bordering on brilliant, rather than American. Even so, this book reminded me of things that are often obscure, and invoked some things that I didn’t know or had forgotten. This could be one of those books that gets better as it percolates.įirst, I read a lot about WWII, especially regarding the European theater, both fiction and non-fiction. I’m not even exactly sure how to characterize my reaction. I think The Invisible Bridge is a book worth reading, but not a book without flaws. At the end of Andrass second summer in Paris, all of Europe erupts in a cataclysm of war.įrom the small Hungarian town of Konyár to the grand opera houses of Budapest and Paris, from the lonely chill of Andrass 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 historys darkest hour, and of the dangerous power of art in a time of war.Įxpertly crafted, magnificently written, emotionally haunting, and impossible to put down, The Invisible Bridge resoundingly confirms Julie Orringer's place as one of todays most vital and commanding young literary talents. Meanwhile, as his elder brother takes up medical studies in Modena and their younger brother leaves school for the stage, Europes unfolding tragedy sends each of their lives into terrifying uncertainty. 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.

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.

The invisible bridge by julie orringer