The Invisible Bridge (Vintage Contemporaries)

This was a GREAT book. Some other reviewers said it was slow for awhile-I didn’t find it that way. I enjoyed every page. It’s an amazing book. The author is amazing. She writes with so much depth and on several topics. The characters are all so vivid and real, from the tiniest to the largest, the most lovable to the most vile. This was one of the greatest books I’ve ever read and I’ve read many 100’s. I’m so glad I didn’t pass this one by. It’s so tragic how hopes were dashed over and over. The suffering and hardships are heartbreaking and painful. I almost hated to hear one more item of bad news-yet life is like that. Especially during war time. The resiliency of the human spirit is amazing. Yet a little chunk of our heart becomes ripped out with each tragedy. The joys and big wins were wonderful and the love and friendships were beautiful!! You won’t regret reading this beautiful book. Such a great story!!pamarellaPRCS

My book group selected this for our January meeting and I was ready to immerse myself into a big, thick, historical novel. I usually enjoy this type of book and also am very interested in this time in history, being the daughter of a WWII veteran who fought in Europe and was wounded in France. Holocaust books are difficult for me to read and fascinating at the same time. It's hard to believe how human beings can hold that much hatred for other and while this part of history is something we should never forget, it can make for difficult reading at times (even when it's fiction).This novel starts out in 1937 and our primary character is Andras Lévi, a young Hungarian-Jewish man. When we meet Andras, he is getting ready to depart from Budapest and travel to Paris to study architecture. At the same time, we meet his brother who is staying behind for the moment but has the desire to study medicine in Italy and has been working towards that goal for years. As these two young men try to live their lives and pursue their dreams in a Europe that increasingly hostile to those of their religion, the reader gets a glimpse into the uncertainty, fear, and eventual horror experience by the Jewish people in this time periodWhile this novel is primarily historical fiction, there is a large component of romance which makes it a bit lighter read than other works of this type. Early on, the book explores a great deal about Andras's life in Paris as a student and the romantic entanglement in which he finds himself. Only later does the book become more substantive but the romantic aspect is never too far in the background. There are more happy coincidences than are realistic particularly in the beginning and that, along with the strong love story, cause the book to drop a star for me. Incredibly well written and often lovely prose make this a book that could have been absolutely fabulous. I enjoyed it tremendously and spent many happy hours caught up in the Europe of the 1930s and 1940s, but it falls slightly short of a ringing 5-star rating due to the previously mentioned issues.

I came across Julie Orringer by chance. I received an email from Amazon suggesting her book. I bought the Kindle edition in a snap decision. After I finished reading the book, I googled Julie Orringer and found out that she is an American writer and a Hungarian Jewish descent. She is simply brilliant! And it was her first novel! I am already waiting her new books.Certainly she worked hard and deeply researching those complex dark years of the World War II. She built up a fabulous background and created very verisimilitudinous characters. During the pre-war part of the story I easily sympathised with them, especially with the main character Andras. In a subtle way the author invited me to enter the story and I slipped slowly but steady into it. I could feel myself around Andras, talking to him, walking the streets by his side, suffering with him.I had already read about those dark times, especially some of the Hanna Arendt's books, a Jewish German philosopher and writer who dissected the origins of the Nazism. I learnt the atrocities committed for the sake of the abominable Final Solution. After reading this book I realized that I had only a cognitive understanding of the Holocaust. Now I might say I can feel better the madness and evilness.The story is touching and reveals the angst before the bloody perversity, the angst before the apparent silence of God. The Devil dragged his long tail on the European soil; his face was shown in his HQ in Berlin. The book led me to watch videos akin to the World War II and the Final Solution in the YouTube site. I learnt that during the short period of 54 days between May and July 1945, the Nazis sent more than 425,000 Jewish Hungarian people to Auschwitz concentration camp. Almost all of them were killed in the gas chamber in groups of 300 each and were cremated just afterwards. They reached the average of 8,000 deaths a day. Completely unbelievable!The author brought me in the awareness of that inferno. Do not miss this book! Well done, Mrs. Orringer.

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.

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.

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.

It's true what Julie Orringer wrote. So often, what we learn in history is 'who killed whom, how, and why' but in Orringer's book, readers are transported back into time and wrapped up in the despair, pain, joy and hope of that era. I have not read a more resonating book, and her writing is sublime. The book did not seem too long at all, in fact, the depth of her writing created a world that sucked me in. When a character in the book cracked a joke, I laughed, and when tragedy befell them, I cried. Never have I been so enthralled or swept away. Read this book, you won't regret it.

very small print .the book is very good.but the print is bad