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EAN: 9780099437260
Format: Paperback
Published: 21 Jun 2007
Other Editions:
Hardback
Synopsis
Two brothers, Arthur and Jake, are the sons of a local farmer in the mid-1930s, when life is tough and another world war is looming. Arthur is reticent, solid, dutiful, set to inherit the farm and his father’s character; Jake is younger, attractive, mercurial and dangerous to know. A young woman, Laura, comes into the community and tips the fragile balance of sibling rivalry over the edge…
And then there is Ian, son of the local doctor, much younger, thoughtful, idealistic, and far too sure that he knows the difference between right and wrong. By now it is the Fifties, and the world has changed – a little, but not enough.
The stories of these two generations in the small town of Struan and its harsh rural hinterland are tragically interlocked, linked by fate and community but separated by a war which devours its young men and whose unimaginable horror reaches right into the heart of this remote corner of an empire. Lawson has an astonishing ability to turn the ratchet of tension slowly and delicately, building to a shocking climax. Taut with apprehension, surprising the reader with moments of tenderness and humour, The Other Side of the Bridge is a compelling, humane and vividly evoked novel with an irresistible emotional undertow.
What the critics say
Subtly wrought affair of complex relationships, hard truths and shocking events, set in the far north of Canada
- Lisa Gee, Independent
Beautifully observed with characters who are all realistically flawed
- Scotland on Sunday
The Other Side of the Bridge was deservedly longlisted for the Man Booker prize.. Tragedy abounds in the novel, but such is its humanity and its wisdom that the effect is not dismaying, but somehow reassuring. Appalling things happen, and are done, but in the last resort ordinary decency somehow wins out. This is a fine book - an enthralling read, both straightforward and wonderfully intricate. I look forward to Lawson's next
- Penelope Lively, Guardian
Eloquent, thoughtful book … not only has Lawson fulfilled the promise of her first novel, she has surpassed it in a layered, complex story about emotional power shifts. Storytelling, not showmanship, dictates the honest, serious art of Mary Lawson
- Eileen Battersby, Irish Times
Like the great 19th-century novelists of provincial life, Mary Lawson is fluent in the desperate intensity of the small, individual dramas of respectable people – and she paints an eloquent picture
- Sunday Telegraph
Editor's Comments
A powerful, heartbreaking story about tempting fate and living with the consequences, set like Lawson’s magical
Crow Lake in the far north of Canada but with a magnificently broader reach