Bridge of Clay
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Bridge of Clay
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Narrated by:
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Markus Zusak
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By:
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Markus Zusak
About this listen
From the author of the no.1 New York Times bestselling novel The Book Thief.
"An amazing talent in Australian literature" Sunday Telegraph
The Dunbar boys bring each other up in a house run by their own rules. A family of ramshackle tragedy - their mother is dead, their father has fled - they love and fight, and learn to reckon with the adult world.
It is Clay, the quiet one, who will build a bridge; for his family, for his past, for his sins. He builds a bridge to transcend humanness. To survive.
A miracle and nothing less.
WINNER INDIE BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2019
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ABIA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019
LONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2020
"I am pleased to recommend...Markus Zusak's extraordinary novel Bridge of Clay, which I suspect I'll reread many times. It's a sprawling, challenging, and endlessly rewarding book. But it also has the raw and real and unironized emotion that courses through all of Zusak's books. I'm in awe of him." John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska
"Exquisitely written multigenerational family saga...With heft and historical scope, Zusak creates a sensitively rendered tale of loss, grief, and guilt's manifestations." Publishers Weekly
"An evocative, compassionate and exquisitely composed coming-of-age story about family, love, tragedy and forgiveness. Zusak's prose is distinct: astute, witty, exquisitely rhythmic, and utterly engrossing." Australian Books+Publishing Magazine
"Zusak is a writer of extraordinary empathy and he excels in his understanding of adolescent boys...in his portrayal of the gently traumatised Clay he has created a memorable character to savour... in Bridge of Clay, as earlier in The Book Thief, Zusak has succeeded in creating a story so vibrant and so real that the reader feels enveloped by it." The Australian
"This vast novel is a feast of language and irony. It is such a compassionate book that it is hard not to fall a bit in love with it yourself. Bridge of Clay shares with Zusak's The Book Thief an underlying sense of the possibility of joy and human dignity even in dehumanising situations." Sydney Morning Herald
"A complex, big-hearted, multi-generational Australian epic, highly evocative and rich in idiom that sprawls across 580 pages, much in the manner of Colleen McCullough, or Tim Winton's Cloudstreet." Good Weekend Magazine
"In 2005, the Australian writer dazzled readers and secured a perch on bestseller lists with The Book Thief ...this book too is a stunner. Devastating, demanding and deeply moving, Bridge of Clay unspools like a kind of magic act in reverse, with feats of narrative legerdemain concealed by misdirection that all make sense only when the elements of the trick are finally laid out. In words that seem to ache with emotion, or perhaps, more aptly, with the suppression of it, Mr. Zusak moves us in and out of time. Grief and sacrifice lie at the heart of things, and we can feel it through Mr. Zusak's writing even before we understand the story's real contours." Wall Street Journal
"What truly stands out about Bridge of Clay is the intensity of the prose - the potency of the heartbreak. The depth of grief and loss is so palpable you can all but feel the blood, sweat, and tears that went into crafting the story." Entertainment Weekly
"As with The Book Thief, much of the appeal of the novel lies in Zusak's heartfelt love for his characters and for language. The book sings in short musical sentences like poetry, and words stop you in your tracks." Herald Sun
What listeners say about Bridge of Clay
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Hamish B.
- 16-12-2018
Outstanding
A totally different style of writing to what I am used to, but presented with love and passion by the author, makes a great read.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Philip
- 10-11-2019
To offset my husband’s terrible review
My husband wrote a terrible review of this book. Everything he hated about it I loved. Especially I loved the rhythmic sentence structures - which were often more like a piece of art and a subtle poem rather than prose. The author read this book himself - his matter of fact, calm rendition exaggerated the beauty of the words. The story was passionate and loving and one of family love, loss and sadness. Highly recommended. P.S. from the "husband". The only problem with this review is it completely overwrote the one which I wrote and I still stick by my poor review! The worm turns?
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 01-05-2019
PURE POETRY
From start to finish this remarkable tale was written and spoken as if it was one long beautiful piece of troubled poetry.🖤
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 16-05-2019
Loved it
Flowed effortlessly from past to present. Great characters. Kept me gripped from beginning to end.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Mary-Lou O'Brien
- 21-02-2019
Struggled to finish
Whilst I thought many times to give up I remained hopeful that it would deliver in the end all because I loved The Book Thief, so I stuck it out. It was way too long, used too many metaphors and I would have loved it to start almost at the building of the bridge as there was too much background provided and I remained bored and so disengaged that it was a relief to finish. The highlight was the audio by Markus particularly at the very end when you can sense his emotion and it was at that point I I first felt any kind of connection to the story.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 05-03-2019
Amazing Experience
I am so pleased that I chose to listen to this novel being narrated by the author . Such an enriching experience. Thank you Markus Zusak.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Shan W
- 22-03-2019
Heart rending and joy filling
In spite of some difficulty I had following the storyline because of the way it was structured, I loved this book. A heart rending, but joy filled story of one family's struggle to deal with death and its consequences, of the interrelationships in a family and the daily struggles and good times they entail. A tribute to life and both the sacredness of connection and the sacred sites that the author references through the book. It's given me food for thought in terms of my and my family's own sacred sites that we've shared throughout our lives and the fact that even though some of them no longer exist in the physical realm, they live on in our heart.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 23-02-2019
I love this book!
I listen in the car on my 1.5 hour each way commute. I found myself eager to get up each morning to listen...eager for my usually dreaded commute!
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Vivien
- 14-01-2019
Intriguing
I liked the way that the individual characters gradually took shape. The interaction between the 5 boys was convincing and entertaining. The boy Clay was imbued with qualities that could only be revealed through this slow and detailed study of his responses to situations that would not be necessarily expected. It is these unique qualities that gave him his power. He reminded me of a special person in my life.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Scott
- 12-01-2019
Full immersion
This is a beautiful book. It absorbs you & with magnificent gentleness it takes you on the ride of emotions that cannot be described better by the author.
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