The Invisible Bridge
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4.5 • 635 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The "stunning" debut novel (Los Angeles Times) from the bestselling author of The Flight Portfolio—the inspiration for the Netflix series Transatlantic—is a grand love story set against the backdrop of Budapest and Paris, a tale of three brothers whose lives are ravaged by war, and 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 promised to deliver. But when he falls into a complicated relationship with the letter's recipient, he becomes privy to a secret that will alter the course of his—and his family’s—history. From the small Hungarian town of Konyár to the grand opera houses of Budapest and Paris, from the despair of Carpathian winter to an unimaginable life in labor camps, The Invisible Bridge tells the story of a family shattered and remade in history’s darkest hour.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Orringer's stunning first novel far exceeds the expectations generated by her much-lauded debut collection, How to Breath Underwater. In this WWII saga, Orringer illuminates the life of Andras L vi, a Hungarian Jew of meager means whose world is upended by a scholarship to the cole Sp ciale d'Architecture in Paris. There, he makes an unlikely liaison with ballet teacher Claire Morgenstern (n e Klara H sz), a woman nine years his senior whose past links her to a wealthy Hungarian family familiar to Andras. Against the backdrop of grueling school assignments, exhausting work at a theater, budding romance, and the developing kinship between Andras and his fellow Jewish students, Orringer ingeniously depicts the insidious reach of the growing tide of anti-Semitism that eventually lands him back in Hungary. Once there, Orringer sheds light on how Hungary treated its Jewish citizens first, sending them into hard labor, though not without a modicum of common decency but as the country's alliance with Germany strengthens, the situation for Jews becomes increasingly dire. Throughout the hardships and injustices, Andras's love for Claire acts as a beacon through the unimaginable devastation and the dark hours of hunger, thirst, and deprivation. Orringer's triumphant novel is as much a lucid reminder of a time not so far away as it is a luminous story about the redemptive power of love.
Customer Reviews
See AllThe Invisible Bridge
Very interesting and emotional book. Excellent writing and worth the length of the story.
Thank you
Thank your for this book. My father, Michael Moshe was a first born American, and therefore, I a second. Many of my family members died in the war, the lucky ones escaping. My father passed away 6 years ago. Your book reminded me of how he would treat any Jew on the street with the kindness of family, because he was a fellow Jewish brother. I say the Mourners Kaddish and Psalm 91 for the Jews who passed, and my father. Your book is a beautiful, heart wrenching testimony to all of their lives and struggles. It makes me proud to say I'm a Jew. Thank you.
Great book!
Informative and gripping...I couldn't put it down. As mentioned in another review, you do not get a lot of information about Hungary during the war, and I kept searching for information as read. For those who are familiar with the geography and history, this book is spot on. Recommend this book for historical readers.