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verkisto 's review for:
Bridge of Clay
by Markus Zusak
The Book Thief is one of the best books I've read in the last twenty years, and very well may be the best book I've ever read. It has heart, courage, and tenacity, while also being a well-told story filled with unforgettable characters. When I learned that Zusak was publishing a new book this year, I knew I was going to read it.
Bridge of Clay is about five Australian brothers, left to raise themselves after their mother dies and their father abandons them. Crude and prone to fighting, they become the kinds of ruffians one would expect from such a situation, but when the father returns several years later and asks for help building a bridge, one of the brothers, Clay, is the only one who even deigns to speak to him. He eventually joins his father and they begin working on the bridge.
Bridge of Clay isn't a book that you read for its plot, though. It's a book about character, about each brother, but about Clay and Matthew in particular. Like The Book Thief, it has heart, courage, and tenacity, and it will move readers in a similar way, but is it as good as The Book Thief? Of course not. It can't be. But it does touch on all the things that made The Book Thief an astonishing book, and it deserves to be recognized for it.
The Book Thief is the book Zusak was born to write. Everything leading up to it is practice, and everything following after will inevitably be compared to it, and found lacking. This doesn't mean that everything else is lacking, and Bridge of Clay is a worthwhile book well worth reading.
Bridge of Clay is about five Australian brothers, left to raise themselves after their mother dies and their father abandons them. Crude and prone to fighting, they become the kinds of ruffians one would expect from such a situation, but when the father returns several years later and asks for help building a bridge, one of the brothers, Clay, is the only one who even deigns to speak to him. He eventually joins his father and they begin working on the bridge.
Bridge of Clay isn't a book that you read for its plot, though. It's a book about character, about each brother, but about Clay and Matthew in particular. Like The Book Thief, it has heart, courage, and tenacity, and it will move readers in a similar way, but is it as good as The Book Thief? Of course not. It can't be. But it does touch on all the things that made The Book Thief an astonishing book, and it deserves to be recognized for it.
The Book Thief is the book Zusak was born to write. Everything leading up to it is practice, and everything following after will inevitably be compared to it, and found lacking. This doesn't mean that everything else is lacking, and Bridge of Clay is a worthwhile book well worth reading.