2 of 4 copies available
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY • THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
"One of those monumental books that can draw you across space and time into another family’s experience in the most profound way." —The Washington Post
"Mystical and loaded with heart, it's another gorgeous tearjerker from a rising master of them." —Entertainment Weekly
“Devastating, demanding and deeply moving.” —Wall Street Journal
The breathtaking story of five brothers who bring each other up in a world run by their own rules. As the Dunbar boys love and fight and learn to reckon with the adult world, they discover the moving secret behind their father’s disappearance.
At the center of the Dunbar family is Clay, a boy who will build a bridge—for his family, for his past, for greatness, for his sins, for a miracle.
The question is, how far is Clay willing to go? And how much can he overcome?
Written in powerfully inventive language and bursting with heart, BRIDGE OF CLAY is signature Zusak.
-
Creators
-
Publisher
-
Release date
October 9, 2018 -
Formats
-
OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780307711106
- File size: 424397 KB
- Duration: 14:44:09
-
-
Languages
- English
-
Levels
- Lexile® Measure: 650
- Text Difficulty: 2-3
-
Reviews
-
Author Zusak narrates his long-awaited novel as if he has spent time with his characters in real life. In his gentle Australian accent, Zusak lingers over his well-chosen words, accenting their rhythms. His quiet tone belies the power of his story. Matthew, the eldest, tells the tale of the five Dunbar brothers. Much of his focus is on Clay, the fourth, who is "the best of us." Zusak's storytelling range is immense. Skillfully, he weaves together the life and death of the boys' musical mother and her early escape from Eastern Europe. There's Clay's love of the girl next door and the boys' relationship with their estranged father. These strands intermingle with bits of THE ILIAD and THE ODYSSEY and imagery that will make listeners stop, rewind, and listen again. S.W. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine -
August 24, 2018
More than a decade after The Book Thief, Markus Zusak returns with an evocative, compassionate and exquisitely composed coming-of-age story about family, love, tragedy, and forgiveness. Narrated by Matthew, the eldest of the five orphaned Dunbar brothers, Bridge of Clay ping-pongs backwards and forwards in time with gleeful (but assured) abandon, thrusting readers into the headspace of its ensemble cast through an older Matthew’s omniscient point of view. We learn of Penny Dunbar’s expedition from the Soviet Union to Australia; of Michael Dunbar’s first failed marriage; of the piano that united Penny and Michael; of their love that blossomed, and the sons that followed; of Penny’s terminal illness; of Michael’s breakdown and desertion, which left five young boys in an unruly homestead, without adult supervision and guidance; and of Clay’s fateful decision to help their father build a bridge in bushland where Michael has made a new home. Zusak’s prose is distinct: astute, witty, exquisitely rhythmic, and utterly engrossing. The deliberateness of his sentences, down to the punctuation, is something to savour. While Bridge of Clay doesn’t rival The Book Thief with regards to its breathtaking scope, Zusak’s new book is a profoundly moving and engaging meditation on innocence and the pliable ties that bind family together in a quintessentially Australian setting.Simon McDonald is the senior bookseller at Potts Point Bookshop
-