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The Invisible Bridge Paperback – Import, 29 Mar. 2011

by Julie Orringer (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars 4,017 ratings
on any 4 Qualifying items | Terms
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LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION

Paris, 1937. Andras Lévi, an architecture student, has arrived from Budapest with a scholarship, a single suitcase, and a mysterious letter he has promised to deliver to Clara Morgenstern a young widow living in the city. When Andras meets Clara he is drawn deeply into her extraordinary and secret life, just as Europe's unfolding tragedy sends them both into a state of terrifying uncertainty.

From a remote Hungarian village to the grand opera houses of Budapest and Paris, from the despair of Carpathian winter to an unimaginable life in forced labour camps and beyond, The Invisible Bridge tells the story of a marriage tested by disaster and of a family, threatened with annihilation, bound by love and history.

'Phenomenal, enthralling ... You don't so much read it as live it' Simon Schama, Financial Times

'To bring an entire lost world - its sights, its smells, its heartaches, raptures and terrors - to vivid life between the covers of a novel is an accomplishment; to invest that world, and everyone who inhabits it, with a soul, as Julie Orringer does in The Invisible Bridge, takes something more like genius' Michael Chabon

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  1. Print length
    624 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Penguin
  4. Publication date
    29 Mar. 2011
  5. Dimensions
    12.9 x 2.7 x 19.8 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0141015098
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0141015095
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Product description

Review

A big, generously involving story, utterly convincing in its texture and detail. Beautiful and sad ― Metro

Compelling, passionate, tragic ― Marie Claire

Powerful and affecting, crowded with the details of lives led and miseries inflicted ― Sunday Times

There are characters whose fate we care about, and a profoundly moving love story threaded between the tenacity of family and the monstrous grind of war. One that cries for you to linger over page by enthralling page -- Simon Schama ― Financial Times

Gripping, moving ― TLS

Stunning, gracefully written, altogether remarkable ― LA Times

A sweeping epic, a good old-fashioned page-turner ― Daily Mail

About the Author

Julie Orringer was born in Florida in 1973. She received the Paris Review's Discovery Prize, and her collection of stories How to Breathe Underwater was a New York Times Notable Book.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ 29 Mar. 2011
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 624 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0141015098
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0141015095
  • Item weight ‏ : ‎ 426 g
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 2.7 x 19.8 cm
  • Best Sellers Rank: 155,244 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • Customer reviews:
    4.4 out of 5 stars 4,017 ratings

About the author

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Julie Orringer

Julie Orringer

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Julie Orringer was born in 1974 and grew up in New Orleans and Ann Arbor, Michigan. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' workshop and Cornell University. Her stories have appeared in several publications including The Yale Review, and Best New American Voices. She received the Paris Review's Discovery Prize, and her collection of stories How to Breathe Underwater was a New York Times Notable Book. Julie Orringer lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband Ryan Harty.

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Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Ms Samantha Simmonite
    5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing,harrowing and great characterisation
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 January 2019
    Verified Purchase
    Loved this book. There was a certain inevitability that the family would lose more loved ones, given our knowledge of the period when this book is set, but I felt each loss as I had come to care deeply about each of the characters and their struggle to stay together· I was not aware of what had happened in Hungary so this was an interesting setting for the book. If you love history and great characterisation read this book. Thoroughly enjoyed it was gripped once the,war started. We have a great capacity to be cruel as human beings but this book reminds you of the fundamentals in life such as love, kindness and solidarity. Great read
    One person found this helpful
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  • JaquiP
    4.0 out of 5 stars An epic read and an emotive subject
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 November 2018
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    A lovely descriptive opening, it's lines setting the place and the historical context immediately. At first, I was feeling - for the first part of the story, that the book was in essence a love story, albeit slowly meandering along, set against the background of France and Hungary as war clouds hover rather than a World War two war story with a love interest. It was slow in places, even a bit repetitive ...The author gives a lot of background information about architecture and buildings and many lists: this kind of thing: "He ate Jasmine terrapin soup, Jasmine sorbet, Jasmine pheasant" which slows the story down and made it feel in parts overly long...although the writing was beautiful. We learn about Andres and his family as he embarks on a scholarship in Paris. Andras wants to become an architect but it is difficult to get into architecture in Hungary because the number of Jewish students in Hungarian universities is limited to six percent. Similarly the rules make it difficult for his brother to study medicine. The story at first focuses on his love for Klara abd unfolds slowly. I did wonder about persevering as the book seemed really long. But then whoosh it took off at a pace propelling me into the horrors of The Munkaszolgalat (the work units the Jewish men were drafted into) not being allowed into the Hungarian army proper. As Hungary allied itself to Germany, Hungarian Jews were engulfed in the nightmare that followed. As the Nazis occupied Hungary, they began swiftly to round up its Jewish citizens. "Germany had to be defeated. And if it could be defeated while Hungary remained a sovereign State, then the Jews of Hungary might never have to live under Nazi rule.". I was totally absorbed in the story now, suddenly, utterly gripped. I couldn't put the book down until I found out what happened to Andras, his two brothers and family. . ... So: a long book, the first half a slow build up to the second part, well written if a bit descriptive heavy, but interesting and well researched. Very sad in parts. Overall, I learned something of the historical aspects of Hungary during and after the war and I'd say a good read. Invested time in it and got a lot out of it.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Dr ND
    5.0 out of 5 stars great book
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 October 2023
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    I really enjoyed reading this wonderful story. It’s a heartbreaking but necessary tale of family love and friendships during the most trying time imaginable.
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  • I. Bryant
    5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent and Unusual WWII Novel
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 November 2010
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    For me this measures up to the great WWII novels of the 1950s such as Irwin Shaw's 'The Young Lions'. Yes, it's a bit predictable but its Hungarian setting provides a rather different background from other Jewish sagas. It's beautifully written, often very moving even when the author's overdoing the action in the last 50 pages but above all it's a MEMORABLE book and you don't find many of those since the marketing boys and girls took control of the publishing industry.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • London Matron
    3.0 out of 5 stars Full of promise
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 August 2011
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    I read some poor reviews of this book and it put me off. I think most of the them were unfair. I enjoyed it and thought it a good read.

    What lets the book down -yet again -is an editor who made the writer cut, keep to the story and cut to the chase. We get lost and a story that is moving but could be gripping - is verbose and self indulgent in places. Such a shame - with some more criticism before publication it could have been great.

    The story is of a Hungarian family across the class divide - and the events of Paris and Budapest does enthrall and we do stick with it. The main protagonist is a young man we do root for and the stories of labour camps in Hungary and the slow move to stripping Jews of rights as Germany moves in is very good. Ms Orringer can write in that her language is well chosen and not over flowing wirth heavy words and description. Still, there is little on Paris and Budapest and we might have got more a feel for those cities in their glamour pre-war.

    All in all, I stuck wirth it and as a book, liked it - but three stars due to the length. You do have to want to stick with it and turn over quite a few pages to get to the end. If I buy another of her books, lets hope she has a stronger editor.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • blossom
    5.0 out of 5 stars A touching, yet harrowing story
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 July 2014
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    Why only long listed for the Orange prize?

    I found this a wonderful story, in many ways. Unfortunately, I am in poor health, & this has affected my intellectual performance. However, there are other reviewers who have been able to write good critiques of this moving account, based, I understand, on the author's family.

    My second question is, how can man treat his fellow man in such an inhumane way?

    I come from a complicated background, some of my family living in neutral countries during & leading up to the Second World War. Fortunately, they were safe from such behaviour.

    I spent a part of my earlier life in Australia, where I knew many Jewish people. Mainly Hungarian Jews in Sydney, Polish Jews in Melbourne. I was told many stories about what these people had had to endure, so what was described in this book was not a surprise to me. But, that does not take away the horror. I feel so angry, frustrated & helpless when I read what happened to innocent people, no matter what race, religion, nationality. I feel even more angry when I see & hear what is still happening to innocent people all over the world, mainly due to greed.

    I have not yet read the author's previous work. I do hope she will continue to write as well in the future, as she has in The Invisible Bridge.
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Surlej
    5.0 out of 5 stars Ein gelungener Roman zur ungarischen neueren Geschichte
    Reviewed in Germany on 17 August 2012
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    Das Buch fesselt den Leser von Anfang an. Es liest sich leicht und wirkt nie langweilig. Trotzdem bringt es die Autorin fertig ein Bild zu maslen über das Ungarn im zweiten Weltkrieg und wie es war davor. Die Charaktere sind glaubwürdig gezeichnet. Der Leser, die Lesering fiebern mit und die Handlung ist flüssig, obwohl es viele Personen sind, die beschrieben werden. Der roman eilt mit spannenden Schritten dem Ende entgegen. Der Leser fiebert mit und die Nachkommen in USA, die von den Ungarn abstammen, erscheinen so wirklichklichkeitsnah, dass man glaubt, man sei ihnen bei einem letzten Besuch in den Vereinigten Staaten begegnet. Schön auch, wie die Autorin den jüdischen Hintergrund beschreibt, ohne aufdringlich zu wirken. Ein gelungener Roman zur neueren Europäischen, ungarischen, jüdischen Geschichte.
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  • Paul@Aude_France
    5.0 out of 5 stars A modern classic
    Reviewed in France on 1 July 2019
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    What a long ride this book is. Following a hopeful Hungarian youth in 1930's Paris, studying and falling in love, to the unspeakable horrors of Hungarian work camps during WWII. This is a love story, first and foremost, but also so much more. Every character comes to life vividly under the author's pen.
    It is extraordinary to realise that this epic book is a debut. A modern classic.
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  • Emilia Mori
    4.0 out of 5 stars Una storia tragica, quasi sconosciuta
    Reviewed in Italy on 2 January 2020
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    The Invisible Bridge è un libro anteriore a The Flight Portfolio, che ho letto dopo aver adorato quest'ultimo.,
    Il libro è molto bello ma leggendolo si notano gli eccessi, le lungaggini che l'autrice ha meravigliosamente evitato nell'ultimo libro.
    Anche se di fatto si tratta di una storia d'amore, il libro rivela gli orrori di quanto è successo in Ungheria fra il 39 e il 46, durante e alla fine della seconda guerra mondiale.
    La Horringer descrive Budapest e le piccole città dei dintorni con grande cura e amore, così come ci da un quadro interessantissimo degli studenti di architettura, emigrati e non, in Francia, alla fne degli anni '30.
    La seconda parte è il racconto terrificante degli orrori nei capi di lavoro in Ungheria ma l'abilità della Horringer consiste nel lasciare sempre una speranza, nel mantenere il tono, se non lieve, mai angosciante.
    Al centro c'è la storia d'amore, o meglio le storie d'amore del protagonista e dei suoi fratelli, storie dolenti ma bellissime che coinvolgono il lettore fino in fondo.
    Nonostante alcuni eccessi e qualche lungaggine, anche questo è un piccolo capolavoro da leggere assolutamente.
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  • Claudia
    5.0 out of 5 stars My favourite book
    Reviewed in Canada on 23 March 2017
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    The Invisible Bridge is the kind of book that will take you a while to get over before you're able to read another book. This novel is so descriptive and perfectly crafted. The characters come off the pages. You become so wrapped up in their world that you truly believe you know them, and that they know you too. I recommend this book to all the readers that love getting stucked into another world. There is love, suffering, loss, understanding and historical references that keep you engaged throughout the novel. I finished the book two weeks ago, and I'm still emotionally attached to it. I have never found my favourite book until now.
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  • Amazon Customer
    2.0 out of 5 stars the book is very good. but the print is bad
    Reviewed in India on 8 September 2016
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    very small print .
    the book is very good.but the print is bad
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