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The Invisible Bridge
by Julie Orringer (Goodreads Author)
by Julie Orringer (Goodreads Author)
Maude's review
bookshelves: jewish-intolerance, world-war-ii, historical-fiction, german-occupation
Jul 16, 10
bookshelves: jewish-intolerance, world-war-ii, historical-fiction, german-occupation
Recommended to Maude by:
Discovered in library
Read in July, 2010 — I own a copy
"Paris, 1937. Andras Levi, a Hungarian-Jewish architecture student, arrives from Budapest with a scholarship, a single suitcase, and a mysterious letter he has promised to deliver. 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. Meanshile, 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 Konyar to the grand opera houses of Budapest and Paris, from the lonely chill of Andras's room on the rue des Ecoles to the deep and enduring connecton he discover on the rue de Sevigne, 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."
This is an excellent story which appears to be semi-biographical and at 600 pages cannot be adequately described here. The afterword does hint that at least some of this story is true. What I particularly liked about this book is that each of the brothers and friends were men and acted like men. Despite, having lost his scholarship, Andras doesn't whine nor complain and, in fact, doesn't even mention it to his brother. This is a family who loves each other, has integrity, courage, and honor. When the brothers arrive back in Russia they are conscripted to fight for Russia. The cold, the lack of food, the brutality (remember they are Jewish), almosts defeats them again and again. But, even in this army there are compassionate leaders, one of whom no doubt saved lives. I loved this book and recommend highly.
From the small Hungarian town of Konyar to the grand opera houses of Budapest and Paris, from the lonely chill of Andras's room on the rue des Ecoles to the deep and enduring connecton he discover on the rue de Sevigne, 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."
This is an excellent story which appears to be semi-biographical and at 600 pages cannot be adequately described here. The afterword does hint that at least some of this story is true. What I particularly liked about this book is that each of the brothers and friends were men and acted like men. Despite, having lost his scholarship, Andras doesn't whine nor complain and, in fact, doesn't even mention it to his brother. This is a family who loves each other, has integrity, courage, and honor. When the brothers arrive back in Russia they are conscripted to fight for Russia. The cold, the lack of food, the brutality (remember they are Jewish), almosts defeats them again and again. But, even in this army there are compassionate leaders, one of whom no doubt saved lives. I loved this book and recommend highly.
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Chrissie
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rated it 5 stars
Jul 14, 2010 02:52am
Wonderful review. And the second time around! I have put this on a "wishlist" shelf which has higher priority than the "to-read" shelf.
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Did you read this or listen to it? You have starred and shelved the audio version. That is why I ask. Do you know how to fix this? Just be sure to copy the review befor you cancel one of the two. You DON'T want to loose the review again!
Chrissie, I don't know how to do that. I think I was trying to do that when I lost my post. It apparently just showed up again which is wonderful because I thought it was gone forever. What I am looking at now looks like the book?? What should I do? I didn't mean to star it and if I shelved it, it was by accident!
Many ways are possible, but the following is maybe the safest:Go to the page where you can read your review.
Fix the bookshelves.
Add the stars.
Copy the text of your review to be safe.
Then save it, which is at the bottom.
Try to find the other entry, which is n audio of the book, and delete it.
As I understand, you read the book. It was not an audio, right?
If you read the book, you are done. If you listened to the audio, then you have to go back to your review page and change the edition of the book. There is a place on the top right that says other editions. Click on that and you will be able to click on a button that says switch to thes edition.
In any case you have copied your review if things get messed up. You can always go to the book where you want the review and paste the review in there but this shouldn't be necessary if you have followed the steps above.
This probably sounds confusing, too bad I cannot show you......
You could also just not worry about having the book twice. You can also find duplicates from your bookshelves. There are so many possibilities. My advice is copy the review so that if you loose it you can paste it in again somewhere else.
Chrissie, I so hate to bother you again but here are my questions re above instructions:How do I fix the bookshelves? I'm not sure what you mean.
How do I add stars?
How do I save when I don't see anything at the bottom?
I will try to fine other entry but don't want to do that until I get this done as I may lose both.
Once I know how to do this I will NEVER need to ask you again - at least about this!!
Maude, let's start right from this screen you are now looking at. Do the following:At the top of thios page, on the line above "by Julie Orringer" you see "The Invisible Bridge". Click on it and you will go back to the book's page. Below the description of the book it says on the line immediately bellow "my review" and on the left and "edit" on the right. Later we will click on that "edit", but not yet. Below that you see "rating" and "bookshelves". To the right of the "rating" click on the stars to give the stars. At the bookshelves you see "edit bookshelves". Click there. Click on the chelves you want the book on. If you click on a shelf and made a mistake, click again and it will disappear. OK now you have done the shelves and the stars. :0)
If you want to change the text of your review or the edition of your book, you must now click on the "edit" I showed you before. Do that. On the screen you see now you can change the text of your review. If you change the text of your review, remember to click on "save review" at the bottom left of the page. That is not necessary now. Is this the edition you read? Up at the top left you will find "change edition". Click on that to change the editon if you need to. You will get a long list of different editions. To the right of each edition possibility it says either "edit my review" or "switch to this edition". You will have two "edit reviews b/c you have the book listed twice. Click on the "edit my review" of the edition you do NOT want to keep. On the bottom of that page there is a possibility to delete the book from your shelves. Make sure you are not deleting the one which has the review . If you see the review on the screen do NOT delete that book edition from your shelves, go back a step and click on the other editon instead. Find the one that has no review and only delete that one. Now hopefully you have only one of these books, the one with the review, on your shelves. If you want to change the edition of the book with the review, click on "switch to this review" for the edition you do want. Oh, this is hard to explain. I hope I have been clear. It is really very simple. You could also try testing with another book that doesn't have a written review so yo feel more comfortable.
Maude, I absolutely loved this book and your review is even more marvelous after having read the book. It was you that got me to read this book!!!!! Mwah!
