The Invisible Bridge

By: Julie Orringer

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

Length: 27 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Julie Orringer’s astonishing first novel, eagerly awaited since the publication of her heralded best-selling short-story collection, How to Breathe Underwater (“fiercely beautiful” - The New York Times; “unbelievably good” - Monica Ali), is a grand love story set against the backdrop of Budapest and Paris, an epic tale of three brothers whose lives are ravaged by war, and the chronicle 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 has promised to deliver to C. Morgenstern on the rue de Sévigné. 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. Meanwhile, as his elder brother takes up medical studies in Modena and their younger brother leaves school for the stage, Europe’s unfolding tragedy sends each of their lives into terrifying uncertainty. At the end of Andras’s second summer in Paris, all of Europe erupts in a cataclysm of war.

From the small Hungarian town of Konyár to the grand opera houses of Budapest and Paris, from the lonely chill of Andras’s 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 history’s darkest hour, and of the dangerous power of art in a time of war.

Expertly crafted, magnificently written, emotionally haunting, and impossible to put down, The Invisible Bridge resoundingly confirms Julie Orringer’s place as one of today’s most vital and commanding young literary talents.

©2010 Julie Orringer (P)2010 Random House

Critic reviews

"One of the best books of the year."—Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

“If you’re still looking for a ‘big’ novel to carry into the summer holidays—one in which you can lose yourself without the guilty suspicion that you’re slumming—then Julie Orringer’s The Invisible Bridge is the book you want. . . . Stunning. . . . In every admirable sense an ‘ambitious’ historical novel, in which large human emotions—profound love, familial bonds and the deepest of human loyalties—play out against the backdrop of unimaginable cruelty. . . . Orringer traverses this perilous rhetorical terrain with remarkable—and, more important, convincing, self-possession. . . . Remarkably affecting. . . . A life powerfully, unsentimentally and inspiringly evoked in this gracefully written and altogether remarkable first novel.”—Tim Rutten, The Los Angeles Times

“The Invisible Bridge deserves to be praised. It takes the introspective themes we’ve loved so well in American literature—from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself to A. M. Homes’s Music for Torching—and points them in a different direction. . . . Rendered in sweeping, epic fashion . . . a close look at the terrible ways that enormous historical events can affect individual lives. . . . The strength of The Invisible Bridge lies in Orringer’s ability to make us care so deeply about the people of her all-too-real fictional world.”—Andrew Ervin, The New York Times Book Review (Editor’s Choice)

Must read

This book contains a story that represents the experiences of my family during WWII and thereafter. While readers might believe it is fiction, to their dismay it is not. Incredibly written and read.

Flawed but promising effort. Not a good narration

Julie Orringer clearly has a love of words and a masterly hand for painting word pictures. It's also apparent that she's done a great deal of research into a lesser-known aspect of Holocaust history; i.e., what happened to Hungarian Jews. This aspect of the book is different and should have a particular appeal for anyone who has an interest in the social history of Europe during WW2.

I appreciated this story, but I wasn't fully drawn in. The main characters, Andras and Klara, seemed two-dimensional. In this lengthy novel, there was too much dwelling on their morose love affair for my taste. For no good reason, Andras often imagines that Klara has been unfaithful to him. His emotional immaturity makes Klara's love for him a little hard to believe in completely.

Several side characters tended to be more interesting. Andras's brother Tibor and his best friends, Mendel and Eli definitely fall into that category. I wish more of the book could have focused on them.

A truly successful novel should have some element of humor in it. Even in Holocaust literature, I've read many books that had that element. It's often bitter, dark humor, but humor nonetheless, that made those books rise above the rest of the genre. This book's plot plods on in its dour way from one event to the next, with only one exception. Andras and his friend Mendel collaborate to create three underground newspapers when they are on their various labor service assignments. The excerpts from these papers are satirical and clever, and bring the book to life in those pages.

Despite these criticisms, Julie Orringer's talent is obvious. She has a real work ethic, a love of language and I hope next time around she will present more vivid, compelling characters and tighter pacing. I will give her next novel a try.

I cannot recommend the audiobook, narrated by Arthur Morey. Morey's voice tends toward the monotone and his emphases and emotional content often seemed to me not to be what the auth

The missed notation

Somehow, (I can't believe I missed it) the fact that this audio book runs almost 28 hours in length was not something I noticed when I purchased the book. As I always try to start what I finish, I did listen all the way to the end. It took almost 4+ hours for me to really be interested, and then the ending felt almost rushed - given that so much time and detail was spent on the earlier parts of the book. So, if you have 28 hours... be my guest.

Survival and love..an engrossing listen.

This novel takes a moment to set the stage. Yet once it does you find yourself a jewish boy facing antisemitism in pre world war II europe.
The subtleties of class and culture are explored. Plus the main character finds love which helps sustain him through the complex emotions and situations of the war. This is not a novel about concentration camps, but a narrative story of someone who lives, loves, and breathes during the war. His fears and longings become real to the listener. You become part of his world and can find a different edge than what one normally expects from a WWII novel. I highly reccommend this story. Please note, however, that the narrator is poorly skilled. Luckily, the story is written lively enough to compensate for this shortcoming.

Slow Start, Great Finish

The first half of the story was a little too long for my taste; it could have been cut in half and wouldn’t have had any adverse effect on the story.

Boy goes to school in Paris, boy meets girl, boy looses girl, boy wins girls back, girl freaks and splits, boy wins girls back… enough! What’s was the point!? The second half was more interesting by far; I felt that finally something was happening and the story was really starting!

I suspect the drawn out beginning was a trick; plunging us into the day to day minutia of their pre -war lives so that we’d care more about them and be more sympathetic to their struggle once war starts brewing in Europe and the events start “hitting home”.

Ultimately, I think the ruse was effective because I was totally engrossed by the second half.

Regarding the narration I completely agree with other posters: Incredible bastardisation of French and German - I can only surmise that the Hungarian was equally awful. This is really my top pet-peeve with Audio Books.

Insightful!

I learned so much about the Hungarian people's sufferings during WWII. Such a tragic time in the world's history! I loved the survival of the Levy family!

Descriptive historical fiction

I loved the descriptive language of this book. The streets of Paris and Budapest came alive. I loved the strong relationships of the family members which is so characteristic of European culture with multiple generations involved intimately with one another. The reader of this book was excellent ! Lots of expression in his voice - perfect emphasis and pronunciation- a real talent for speaking !

Long and a bit tedious

Good story but beat to death towards the end. Exhausting. Too much introspection. Enough already.

Bravo

a story well told. engaging and did not lag...
characters well developed. sadden in some parts. enjoyed authors story and narrator's reading.

Excellent read

I wouldn't be put off by the scoffs at the narrator and not read this book. Mr. Morey has a pretty poor French accent, but otherwise he reads well
and the book should nor be missed. Excellent story and wonderful characters.