The Other Side of the Bridge: Discover the author Graham Norton praised for her ‘poised, elegant prose, paired with quiet drama that will break your heart.’

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As the story of the Dunns unfolds, the novel also tells the story of Ian, whose life overlaps with the Dunn family when he takes a part-time job on the farm. As the novel opens, Ian is restless, dreams of leaving the small town of Struan, and is obsessed with Laura Dunn. Eventually, he becomes less sure of what he wants to do, less sure he wants to escape Struan, and less obsessed with Laura Dunn.

As the war progresses, many of the small town’s young men are killed. Arthur and Jake, both unable to serve, Arthur because of flat feet, Jake because of his limp, are among the few survivors of their generation in the area. Near the end of the war, they both fall in love with Laura, a young girl whose family moves to town during the war. Arthur is in love with Laura but never does anything about it. Jake is not in love with her and pursues her mostly out of spite for his brother. He ends up getting Laura pregnant and disappearing, leaving only a single-line note, “Sorry to go without saying good-bye. Love, Jake” (292). Beth Christopherson: Ian's mother and Dr. Christopherson's wife. She leaves Ian and Dr. Christopherson in Chapter 3 because she no longer loves Dr. Christopherson anymore. She moves to Toronto with Robert Patterson, Ian's teacher.When Laura arrives in their rural community, the fragile balance of the brothers' rivalry is pushed to the edge of catastrophe... Ian’s story is set in the late 1950s, a generation later than Arthur’s, which begins toward the end of the Great Depression, in the late 1930s. Arthur is a child and young man in the chapters told from his point-of-view, and a grown man with a wife and children in the chapters told from Ian’s point-of-view. Lawson’s choice of structure means the action of the novel sometimes occurs out of sequence, and the novel sometimes does not fill in all the gaps between the two stories, leaving some details for the reader to guess at on their own.

There are multiple themes throughout the story. They include growing up, friendship, love, adultery, sibling rivalry, war, guilt, responsibility, choices in life, and farming. EA, 28x30 cm, 163 S., OKLdr. m. OU., sehr gut erhalten Sprache: Englisch. Aufgrund der EPR-Regelung kann in folgende Länder KEIN Versand mehr erfolgen: Bulgarien, Frankreich, Griechenland, Luxemburg, Österreich, Polen, Rumänien, Schweden, Slowakei, Spanien. Fulford, Robert. "Author uncovers a remote possibility: Lawson Reinvents rural literature for a new century." National Post 13 Feb. 2007: Print]

As with her first novel, Crow Lake, the setting is Northern Ontario. It is the mid 1930s and Arthur and Jake, the sons of a farmer vie for the affections of Laura, a newcomer to the community. A generation later, Ian the son of the local doctor becomes obsessed with Arthur's wife...

The Other Side of the Bridge". Booker Prize. Archived from the original on 2011-05-21 . Retrieved 2012-06-18. Arthur is left to deal with the mess Jake has made. Arthur marries Laura and raises Jake’s son as his own. Eventually, they have two more children. This was my first Mary Lawson, bought on spec. Turns out she’s quite a price winner, twice being long-listed for the Booker. I thought this novel was amazing. The action happens at two time periods and the past catches up with the present. We follow the destinies of two brothers on a northern Ontario farm, who are as different as night and day. Odd-numbered chapters are told from the point-of-view of Ian Christopherson, the son of a doctor who takes a job on Arthur Dunn’s farm, chiefly to be near Laura Dunn. Even-numbered chapters follow Arthur Dunn. The older of the two Dunn brothers, Arthur is repeatedly portrayed as a large, lumbering, slow-thinking man happiest plowing the fields of his farm near the fictional town of Struan, in Northern Canada. Mrs. Dunn: Arthur and Jake's mother. Has had multiple miscarriages in the past leading to her overprotective nature of Jake.Ian Christopherson: Protagonist for odd-numbered chapters. Dr. Christopherson's son. Expected to be the next doctor. Has a perverted love for Laura, going as far as getting a job at Arthur's farm to get closer to her. Penelope Lively in The Guardian wrote "Tragedy abounds in the novel, but such is its humanity and its wisdom that the effect is not dismaying, but somehow reassuring. Appalling things happen, and are done, but in the last resort ordinary decency somehow wins out. This is a fine book – an enthralling read, both straightforward and wonderfully intricate" [4] The Other Side of the Bridge : Discover the Author Graham Norton Praised for Her 'poised, Elegant Prose, Paired with Quiet Drama That Will Break Your Heart. '