The Invisible Bridge (2010)

The Invisible Bridge: A Novel by Julie Orringer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


By the time I finished this story I had stopped breathing. An amazing love story made even more compelling by the settings in Paris and Hungary in the time leading up to and during WWII.

Andras Levi is meant to be an architect but he is Jewish. His brother is meant to be a doctor but he is Jewish. So much to lose and so much randomness in the many who perished and the few who survived.

Author Julie Orringer not only did extensive research but in her beautiful writing she has created characters that you care about intensely. The story she shares is terrifying in its depiction of how easily control of one's life can be taken away. The poem by Wislawa Szymborska included at the end of the book says it all.

"You survived because you were first.
You survived because you were last.
Because alone. Because the others.
Because on the left. Because on the right.
Because it was raining. Because it was sunny.
Because a shadow fell."

You don't just read this book. You live it along with Andras and his family.

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