The Bridge

Did the dead exist? Were they watching? Were they ghosts? Not the kind he'd imagined as a child, draped with white sheets, with the ability to walk through walls, but the kind that lodged themselves in your heart, in your memories, the kind that came to you in dreams, that you could see when you closed your eyes and sometimes even when your eyes were opened.

In 1970s Melbourne, 22-year-old Italian migrant Antonello is newly married and working as a rigger on the West Gate Bridge, a gleaming monument to a modern city. When the bridge collapses one October morning, killing 35 of his workmates, his world crashes down on him. It is up to his wife, Paolina, to help him recover and find his way back to himself and their marriage.

In 2009, Jo and her best friend Ashleigh are on the verge of finishing high school and flush with the possibilities for their lives thereafter. But when a night of drinking at a party results in a terrible tragedy, Jo's future is set on a radically different course. The only path to redemption is to face the consequences of her actions.

Drawing on true events of Australia's worst industrial accident—a tragedy that still scars the city—The Bridge is a profoundly moving novel that examines class, guilt, and moral culpability. Yet it shows that even the most harrowing of situations can give way to forgiveness and redemption. Ultimately, it is a testament to survival and the resilience of the human spirit.

'One of the most profoundly moving and beautiful books I have read all year, brimming with love, honesty, and insight. A true gem of a novel.' - Alice Pung

'This exquisite, moving story from Gandolfo captures the raw, wide-reaching pain of the tragedy, long regarded as Australia's worst industrial accident.' - Herald Sun

'Superb ... Utterly heartbreaking.' - ANZ LitLovers

'A dramatic and dynamic novel ... This is a novel about everyday tragedy written in everyday language. Clarity prevails over lyricism. Dialogue is colloquial and lively. Carefully articulated sentences give way, in moments of anger, to more truncated phrasing and, in the closing chapters, to snappier prose that creates a sense of urgency ... Her skill as a storyteller and her ability to create complex and empathetic characters gives weight to her fiction and invites the reader to question her own integrity and sense of self-worth, not without compassion.' - Australian Book Review

'A poignant novel which examines class, grief, guilt and moral culpability, The Bridge, weaves together two vastly different yet interrelated narratives.' - Il Globo

'Enza Gandolfo doesn't shy away from the unpleasant emotions of her characters, and paints a startlingly real and believable picture of lives impacted by these kinds of tragedies.' - Good Reading

'Gandolfo writes that "things that were solid crumbled" and she documents with painstaking intricacy the grieving and guilt of survivors. It is a masterful portrayal of families torn apart, searching for redemption in an unforgiving world.' - Sunday Territorian