Bridge of Clay Audiobook By Markus Zusak cover art

Bridge of Clay

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Bridge of Clay

By: Markus Zusak
Narrated by: Markus Zusak
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The unforgettable New York Times best-selling family saga from Markus Zusak, the storyteller who gave us the extraordinary best seller The Book Thief, lauded by the New York Times as "the kind of book that can be life-changing."

Named one of the best books of the year by Entertainment Weekly and The Wall Street Journal.

"One of those monumental books that can draw you across space and time into another family’s experience in the most profound way." (The Washington Post)

"Mystical and loaded with heart, it's another gorgeous tearjerker from a rising master of them." (Entertainment Weekly)

"Devastating, demanding and deeply moving." (Wall Street Journal)

The breathtaking story of five brothers who bring each other up in a world run by their own rules. As the Dunbar boys love and fight and learn to reckon with the adult world, they discover the moving secret behind their father’s disappearance.

At the center of the Dunbar family is Clay, a boy who will build a bridge - for his family, for his past, for greatness, for his sins, for a miracle.

The question is, how far is Clay willing to go? And how much can he overcome?

Written in powerfully inventive language and bursting with heart, Bridge of Clay is signature Zusak.

©2018 Markus Zusak (P)2018 Listening Library Coming of Age Death & Dying Difficult Situations Family Family & Relationships Literature & Fiction Heartfelt

Critic reviews

"In a complex narrative that leaps through time and place and across oceans, Zusak paints a vivid portrait of the brothers trying to regain their balance by keeping their family’s story alive." (Time)

“A captivating book with a mighty, fearless heart, Bridge of Clay is filled with characters to believe in and care about...achingly moving, delightfully funny, and thoroughly uplifting.” (M. L. Stedman, best-selling author of The Light Between Oceans)

“If The Book Thief was a novel that allowed Death to steal the show...[its] brilliantly illuminated follow-up is affirmatively full of life.” (The Guardian)

Editorial Review

Open the door at 18 Archer Street

As soon as I heard there was a new book on the way from Markus Zusak (it's been 13 years since The Book Thief), I added it to my wish list. Now that I’ve listened, I don’t think there’s any way I could prepare you for what to expect. Bridge of Clay is both an epic "ka-pow of boys and blood and beasts" and an intimate story that made me feel like Zusak, who also narrates the book, was reciting it to me personally as we road-tripped around Australia. I could go on about the Dunbar boys and the mule who wanders into the kitchen and the old, buried typewriter… but all you really need to know is that a master storyteller is back—and he’s brought tragedy and humor with him. —Heather S., Audible Editor

Beautiful Writing • Emotional Storytelling • Vivid Characters • Poetic Language • Meaningful Family Dynamics
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Overall I loved this book. Due to his heavy accent, at times I could not understand some of the words, and knowing that sometimes we have different words for the same object, it made it a little confusing at times.
He does jump around a lot - past and present but once you get into the book, it’s not too difficult to follow.

May be helpful to have book in hand

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This story, for me, was perfect! The narration was flawless. The life story of this family and how they came together, told going from far past to mid past to final present was laid out expertly.

The five bothers and who they were in childhood and as they grew was like a blossom opening, seeing how individual each one of them were. It is so good to see so many perspectives of a childhood, adolescence then adulthood, each coming from the same household and with shared tramas but each brother, so different in their choices in life and showing who they were thru it all. Of course, Clay, being sort of the main character, became someone that I really wanted to understand the most.

I cannot exactly say everything I loved about this story but I cried and cried during the last 1/4 of the book. I was fully invested with these fellas. I felt the ending was perfect!

I would recommend this story to folks who love a great family story of trials and tribulations and growing up. This is very rich and complex and satisfying when done!

Loved this story!!!

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So long and hard to follow at times. I almost gave up several times. The last two chapters were the payoff. Glad I stuck with it. Amazing story... hit home as I watched my own mother die this past year. The author's reading was wonderful. His emotion at the story's peaks were genuine and touching.

Frustration and Resolution

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brilliant, lovely, tough, heart-rending. so worth spending time with the dunbar boys. don't miss it.

glorious

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I listened on Audible. It is read masterfully by the author and I found it to be a compelling and great literary work of fiction that reads like an autobiography.

Loved Itn

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Zusak’s lyrical writing evokes strong emotions. This book made me smile now and then, but the emotion for me throughout the book was overwhelming sadness. Some reviewers have said they thought Zusak narrated the book in a monotone. I think he was giving a poetry reading to the rhythm of the metronome that features in the story. I didn’t have any trouble following the jumps in the story from past to present and character to character, but there could have been a bit less of that in some places without losing the impact.

Overwhelming sadness

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If one Dunbar chooses to hide the full story of what happened from another, okay. But why hide basic story elements from the reader in the hope it would all fall into order 534 pages on? It was too much work trying to follow the action across various locales and time periods. And that's a shame, because the writing is at times near-poetic.

Zigzag story line

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Great family saga. The narrator's voice and delivery are perfect for the setting and story.

Compelling, heartwrenching tale

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I wasn't expecting a love story, but found several. This is one of my new favorites.

I still think about this book

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Great story of siblings and love and all the pain and joy that they encompass. Loved that the author read as it should have been told.

Loved it all

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