The bridge

The stunning new short novel from the bestselling author of Brooklyn and Long Island

'An ageless study of loss, betrayal and survival' - The Guardian

'A small, beautiful book about betrayal, the cost of isolation and the persistence of human decency' - The Spectator


Miquel and his father are living an uneasy life together in his mother's house in the Pyrenees, the house she had been returning to on the day she died. A new bridge, connecting the two valleys, is almost complete, which will end the valley's isolation and create an easier route to smuggle contraband deep into the mountains. Where Miquel's father imagines opportunity, Miquel foresees disaster and an exposure to a modern way of living for which his father is desperately unprepared.

Colm Tóibín's exhilarating short novel contains vast inner and outer worlds within its pages. With meticulous precision and an unerring eye Tóibín captures lives caught between the past and the present, and the journey of a young man seeking connection, haunted by loss.

'With just a few economic brushstrokes he tells the kind of profound tale of family connection and dislocation that other writers would struggle to tell in 500 pages' - The i

PRAISE FOR COLM TÓIBÍN

'A writer at the height of his considerable powers' – The Guardian
'A giant amongst storytellers' – The Telegraph
'One of our finest contemporary writers' – New Yorker