Spring Book Discussion at Darien Library – The Invisible Bridge

The Spring Book Discussion Series, “Extraordinary Lives, Extraordinary Times,” continues at Darien Library on Tuesday, April 5 at 7 p.m. The selected titles are critically-acclaimed books about those who have experienced the improbable, endured the unimaginable, and compelled us with their epic stories of cunning, tenacity, and hope. Library staff members will lead the discussions.

The discussion book on April 5 will be The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer. The Invisible Bridge is a grand love story set against the backdrop of Budapest and Paris, an epic tale of three brothers whose lives are ravaged by war, and the chronicle of one family’s struggle against the forces that threaten to annihilate it.
From the small Hungarian town of Konyár to the grand opera houses of Budapest and Paris, from the lonely chill of Andras’s room on the rue des Écoles to the deep and enduring connection he discovers on the rue de Sévigné, from the despair of Carpathian winter to an unimaginable life in forced labor camps and beyond, The Invisible Bridge tells the story of a love tested by disaster, of brothers whose bonds cannot be broken, of a family shattered and remade in history’s darkest hour, and of the dangerous power of art in a time of war.

“The Invisible Bridge deserves to be praised. It takes the introspective themes we’ve loved so well in American literature—from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself to A. M. Homes’s Music for Torching—and points them in a different direction. . . . Rendered in sweeping, epic fashion . . . a close look at the terrible ways that enormous historical events can affect individual lives. . . . The strength of The Invisible Bridge lies in Orringer’s ability to make us care so deeply about the people of her all-too-real fictional world.” — Andrew Ervin, The New York Times Book Review (Editor’s Choice)

“Dazzling . . . Like Tolstoy and Stendhal, she chronicles sea changes in European history through the eyes of finely fashioned characters, and like them she has created a story simultaneously epic and intimate. . . . An ambitious slice of literature, but Orringer fulfills her ambitions with crisp writing. . . . This stunning work manages to feel both original and part and parcel of the well-blazed tradition of historical novels that came before it.” — Keith Staskiewicz, Entertainment Weekly (Grade: A)

The Library’s Spring Book Discussion Series will conclude with Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand on Tuesday, May 3 at 7 p.m. (The first discussion book of the series was Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff.)

The Library has copies of the books available for patrons to borrow, but prior reading of the books is not necessary to attend the discussions.

The Book Discussion Series is funded solely by contributions made to the Annual Campaign, and is co-sponsored by the Darien Community Association Book Group.

Darien Library is located at 1441 Post Road, Darien, Conn 06820. For more information, call 203-655-1234 or visit darienlibrary.org. 

Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen’s)

(Image attached: Cover of “The Invisible Bridge”)