Rate this book

Die Brückenbauer (2012)

by Jan Guillou(Favorite Author)

3.86 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

3453268253 (ISBN13: 9783453268258)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Heyne

series

Det stora århundradet

review 1: If someone had told me, a week and a half ago, that I would love a historical novel about engineering, bridge constructions in Norway and railway in Africa, I would have laughed out loud. However, as I have trust in Jan Guillou to write stuff that I like, I started. This book turned out to be a page turner for me, and today I'm going to download the next one in the trilogy.I learned so much from reading this novel, will look at bridges differently now. It was also very interesting to read about the First World War from a different perspective. It's definitely not a romance novel, but there's LOTS of human interest. I read this in Swedish, and I sincerely hope it will be translated into English soon!
review 2: This took a long time to get through because I had i... moret on audio. At least 19 hours worth of. It was definitely worth it, particularly in comparison to the last two books on audio. It's actually quite astonishing that I didn't roll my eyes or mutter in frustration a single time through the whole experience. I did raise my eyebrow in wonder of historical details - where submarines used during the first world war? - but other than that, this was good, solid story telling.The story is that of three poor brothers of fishermen on the Norwegian west coast and starts in the late 1800's. One day their father is lost at sea and the future seems bleak at best. Through sheer serendipity they end up being educated as engineers in Dresden, Germany. The deal is that all three return to Norway afterward to work on the rail road between Bergen and Oslo, Norway's two largest cities. As fate turns out, only the oldes brother, Lauritz, returns. We follow his perilous work at high altitudes and his quest to get to marry the love of his life, an upper class German woman. One of the other brothers, Oscar, sets off to Africa after having had his heart broken. He quickly builds a reputation as an excellent engineer - he too works on railroads - businessman and hero. We follow Oscar through a multitude of ups and downs.The third brother turns out to be gay and sets of to England with his boyfriend. He isn't covered in this book, but I gather he shows up in book number two.Everything Oscar and Lauritz manage to put in place over the years is overturned at the coming of the first world war. A war that wasn't supposed to be able to happen in the modern world. Wars were of the 1800's, according to the general opinion.The author is a bit too obvious in his attempt to give an alternative perspective on the winners of World War I. The brothers went to school in German, had German affinities. Atrocities committed by the British and the Belgians are shown in all their gory detail. This went a little bit overboard at times, although I do see the point of correcting the biases imposed by the winners of the war. There is always more than one side to a story. The author does a satisfying job with the characters, particularly the main ones. The story telling is good and the pacing excellent. Definitely recommended. less

Download links for: Die Brückenbauer

Advertising