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The Bridge [Paperback]

Iain Banks
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.99
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Book Description

1994

The man who wakes up in the extraordinary world of a bridge has amnesia, and his doctor doesn't seem to want to cure him. Does it matter? Exploring the bridge occupies most of his days. But at night there are his dreams. Dreams in which desperate men drive sealed carriages across barren mountains to a bizarre rendezvous; an illiterate barbarian storms an enchanted tower under a stream of verbal abuse; and broken men walk forever over bridges without end, taunted by visions of a doomed sexuality.

Lying in bed unconscious after an accident wouldn't be much fun, you'd think. Oh yes? It depends who and what you've left behind.

Which is the stranger reality, day or night? Frequently hilarious and consistently disturbing, THE BRIDGE is a novel of outrageous contrasts, constructed chaos and elegant absurdities.


Frequently Bought Together

The Bridge + Espedair Street + Complicity (Abacus Paperback)
Price For All Three: £20.97

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Product details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Abacus; New Ed edition (1994)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0349102155
  • ISBN-13: 978-0349102153
  • Product Dimensions: 12.6 x 19.7 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 28,338 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

Represents significant progress in the flowering of an exceptional talent...a totally absorbing read (The TIMES )

Iain Banks of THE WASP FACTORY eclipses that sensational debut...a real dazzler (DAILY MAIL )

It's compulsive reading and highly recommended. (Sunday TODAY )

A stunning book, Bank s' powerful imagination is joined to a rare ability to be truly funny while exploring a nightmare world. (Sunday TIMES )

Book Description

* Paperback reissue of a modern classic, Iain Banks' THE BRIDGE - 'the flowering of an exceptional talent' (THE TIMES).

Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
The dark station, shuttered and empty, echoed to the distant, fading whistle of the departing train. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A great - if challenging - read 7 Nov 2001
Format:Paperback
This is the first of his books I have read. At the start I was a bit annoyed. Making up dreams seemed a bit cheap. But then the suspension of disbelief got in there and the the narrative and the description of this place took over.
A brilliant "other place" that completely takes you over. The vision of the place is completely visual - you can see it on the page.
The chapters with the dialect I found hard going and for preference I would have prefered a text that kept the pace going.

A brilliant read and I am shopping for more.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Not Iain M Banks but almost Sci-Fi. 11 Jan 2000
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
The story is about a man in a coma who finds himself waking up with amnesia in a surreal world where everything seems to exist on an endless bridge. None of the other inhabitants find this strange and the man's curiosity and desire to escape take him upon an unusual adventure. This is interspersed with strange dream sequences and a narrative of his life up to the point of falling into a coma. All these threads intertwine into a compelling read. The ending is the weakest part of the story. If you've read The Wasp Factory you'll know how original and unexpected Banks's endings can be. The unusual setting of the Bridge give this tale an other worldly science fiction feel but it is also a story that stays very much on planet earth in the darkest recesses of the human mind. Almost worth a five if Banks hadn't written books to surpass this (Excession and Complicity to name two)
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Virtually perfect example of this writing style 27 April 2000
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I bought this book many years ago on a whim, I'd heard of the writer but not read any of his work. I read it on holiday in Edinburgh (a coincidence)and it blew me away. The overlapping stories are confusing but patience and a good memory reward the reader. Having read a number of books in this flashback style I have to say this is a virtually perfect example of the style, Mr Banks certainly likes to challenge the reader and meeting that challenge is half the fun of this book, although I've found some of his later books virtually unreadable (Feersum Endjin for one) in this book everything works. Mr Banks skillful narative and pacing create a genuine sense of tension as the book reaches a climax and upon finishing you can only sit back and say 'wow'. This is definitely a book that deserves a second and third reading, there is so much packed in that can only be appreciated second time round. The book will not be to everyones taste, but if you have enjoyed any other Iain Banks book you will enjoy this, read it once, read it twice - you won't be disappointed.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars Great book. Why no text-to-speech?
I have just bought about *ten* Iain Banks books in Kindle version (which I read on paper years ago), and I was just about to buy a Kindle Fire HD so I could use text-to-speech to... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Eolake
1.0 out of 5 stars Slow and difficult
Very boring, badly written and goes nowhere. It was incredibly dull and finishing the book really felt like a chore. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Le Gazman
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
I liked the plot. Banks is a great writer and his novels have many twists and turns. They are sometimes a bit in your face. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Binnie de Cundo
4.0 out of 5 stars The Bridge is worth reading and persevering with
I enjoyed The Bridge but I would not give it 5 stars. It is an interesting book about dreams, involving three parts of the same man or the man's mind and the Bridge based on the... Read more
Published on 15 Dec 2010 by Mr. Craig Henderson
5.0 out of 5 stars Strokes of Genius
This is an utterly superb book; completely surreal for the most part but sharply recognisable and brutally, crisply real in parts. Read more
Published on 31 May 2010 by C. Hay
5.0 out of 5 stars The Bridge.
After suffering a horrific car accident, the novel's nameless, Scottish protagonist finds himself on the `Bridge', an industrial super-complex his mind has conceived for him to... Read more
Published on 14 April 2010 by TomCat
2.0 out of 5 stars "The Bridge"
I'm sure Banks thinks this is a deeply insightful, intelligent and psychological novel that is some of his finest mainstream work. Read more
Published on 3 Nov 2009 by David Brookes
3.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing, but Ultimately Unsatisfying
I was covering a class of 2nd years on a library period and they were sitting quietly reading, so I decided to join them. Read more
Published on 18 Oct 2009 by Andrew Morton
1.0 out of 5 stars Very hard going - could not finish it....
Just loved Iain banks - "The Wasp factory" but in contrast this book was very hard work - i stuck with it and stuck with it - but eventually abandoned it about a third of the way... Read more
Published on 4 Oct 2009 by A. J. Greenwood
2.0 out of 5 stars Not for me
Last year I bought Iain Banks' entire fiction (not SF) catalogue as I'd loved "The Steep Approach to Garbadale" and wanted to try his others, and since then I've been working my... Read more
Published on 17 Sep 2009 by Peter Lee
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