{"id":81303,"date":"2018-07-12T13:29:15","date_gmt":"2018-07-12T02:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/?p=81303"},"modified":"2018-11-20T16:35:29","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T05:35:29","slug":"review-bridge-clay-markus-zusak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2018\/07\/12\/review-bridge-clay-markus-zusak\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bridge<\/a>Bridge of Clay<\/strong>
\nby Markus Zusak<\/strong><\/p>\n

Review by John Purcell<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bridge of Clay<\/em><\/a> is the first book from Markus Zusak since he took the world by storm with The Book Thief<\/em><\/a>. This new novel has to be the most highly anticipated return to publication in recent times. Fans have been screaming for a new book. Booksellers have been growing more and more impatient. So much so that when the advance reading copy arrived at Booktopia for us to review, there was almost a riot as we all reached for the single copy.<\/p>\n

But we are booksellers after all and so after we dusted ourselves off, we calmly drew lots and we all accepted the decision of the gods. In short, the gods decided I was the worthy one. Mwa Ha Ha Haaar.<\/p>\n

And was it worth the wait?<\/p>\n

Bloody right it was. Bridge of Clay<\/em><\/a> is nothing like The Book Thief<\/a>,<\/em> so let me kill off that dream here and now. Zusak was never going to spend ten years writing The Book Thief 2: The Page Turns<\/em>, now was he?<\/p>\n

Zusak has written something completely original. Bridge of Clay<\/em> is a big, bold Australian family saga in the tradition of Bryce Courtenay, or Colleen McCullough. But one written for a new generation of readers. It\u2019s time again for readers to get swept up in a home-grown epic.<\/p>\n

The main point of this review is not to retell the story I have just read. It is to shout to the world that Markus Zusak has done it again. And that you can all relax. He has done what we all wanted him to do, he has written a book we can get lost in.<\/p>\n

\n

Review by Ben Hunter<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

When an enormous paperback book was delivered to Booktopia emblazoned with the words \u201cThe Most Anticipated Book of the Decade\u201d we knew it could only be the new Markus Zusak novel, Bridge of Clay<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Markus Zusak is one of Australia\u2019s most successful exports. His 2005 novel, The Book Thief<\/em> was, and still is, a major bestseller worldwide – a powerful and ambitious love letter to the written word set against the darkest chapter of modern history.<\/p>\n

I was eager to be among the first to read Bridge of Clay<\/em> not just because it\u2019s the follow-up to an incredible international smash hit, but because this new book, twelve years in the making, offers an unrivaled glimpse into the life and mind of Zusak himself.\u00a0 And what a massive, ambitious book it is!<\/p>\n

Spanning generations, Bridge of Clay<\/em><\/a> is an Australia family saga, worlds apart from the WWII narrative of The Book Thief<\/a>.<\/em> The Dunbar boys are a gaggle of bruised and battered brothers, raising themselves in the wake of tragedy. Their mother is dead, their father has fled. Most remarkable of all is Clay – Clay the son, Clay the brother, Clay the romantic, Clay the secret, and Clay the builder of bridges.<\/p>\n

Zusak weaves in countless contrasts between beauty and brutality, art and violence, and life and death. Bridge of Clay<\/em> offers an incredible portrait of family and loss, with three uniquely devastating romances woven\u00a0into the plot of this vibrant adventure story.<\/p>\n

So much happens in this book, and different readers will gravitate to its many\u00a0different elements. At its core, however, it\u2019s a novel about the strange and wonderful ways in which things that are broken are made whole again.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Bestsellers of the Week<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. The Ice Monster<\/em> by David Walliams\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

2. Any Ordinary Day<\/em> by Leigh Sales<\/a><\/p>\n

3. Simple<\/em> by Yotam Ottolenghi\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

4. The Barefoot Investor 2018 Update<\/em> by Scott Pape<\/a><\/p>\n

5. The Land Before Avocado<\/em> by Richard Glover\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

6. Modern Baking<\/em> by Donna Hay\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

7. Becoming<\/em> by Michelle Obama\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

8. Nine Perfect Strangers<\/em> by Liane Moriarty<\/a><\/p>\n

9. Mothering our Boys<\/em> by Maggie Dent<\/a><\/p>\n

10. Wundersmith<\/em> by Jessica Townsend<\/a><\/p>\n

\"bestsellers\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow us @TheBooktopian<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak Review by John Purcell Bridge of Clay is the first book from Markus Zusak since he took the world by storm with The Book Thief. This new novel has to be the most highly anticipated return to publication in recent times. Fans have been screaming for a new book. Booksellers have been growing more and more impatient. So much so that when the advance reading copy arrived at Booktopia for us to review, there was almost a riot as we all reached for the single copy. But we are booksellers after all and so after we dusted ourselves off, we calmly drew lots and we all accepted the decision of the gods. In short, the gods decided I was the worthy one. Mwa Ha Ha Haaar. And was it worth the wait? Bloody right it was. Bridge of Clay is nothing like The Book Thief, so let me kill off that dream here and now. Zusak was never going to spend ten years writing The Book Thief 2: The Page Turns, now was he? Zusak has written something completely original. Bridge of Clay is a big, bold Australian family saga in the tradition of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":81450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[6678],"tags":[8856,3537,4482,5342],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Bridge-of-Clay-2.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81303"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81303"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84619,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81303\/revisions\/84619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}