The Bridge, Iain Banks
The Bridge, Iain Banks
List: $22.99 | Sale: $16.09
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The Bridge

Author: Iain Banks

Narrator: Peter Kenny

Unabridged: 9 hr 18 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/23/2014

Synopsis

The man who wakes up in the extraordinary world of a bridge has amnesia, and his doctor doesn't seem to want to cure him. Does it matter? Exploring the bridge occupies most of his days. But at night there are his dreams. Dreams in which desperate men drive sealed carriages across barren mountains to a bizarre rendezvous; an illiterate barbarian storms an enchanted tower under a stream of verbal abuse; and broken men walk forever over bridges without end, taunted by visions of a doomed sexuality.
Lying in bed unconscious after an accident wouldn't be much fun, you'd think. Oh yes? It depends who and what you've left behind.
Which is the stranger reality, day or night? Frequently hilarious and consistently disturbing, THE BRIDGE is a novel of outrageous contrasts, constructed chaos and elegant absurdities.

About Iain Banks

Iain Banks came to widespread and controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984. He gained enormous popular and critical acclaim for both his mainstream and his science fiction novels. Iain Banks died in June 2013.

About Peter Kenny

Thirty years working as an actor, musician, designer and director in Theatre and Radio; Peter has worked for: A&BC Theatre Co. The Royal Shakespeare Co. and The BBC Radio Drama Co. An award winning narrator of audio-books he has recorded over 100 titles, everything from: Iain M. Banks, Neil Gaiman, and Andrzej Sapkowski to Claire North, Jonas Jonasson Jeremy Vine and Paul O'Grady. He has worked with many of the major publishing houses including, Little Brown, Orion/Gollancz, Hachette, Harper, Hodder, Pan MacMillan, ISIS, RNIB, Podium and Penguin. Visit www.peterkenny.com @PeterKennyVoice

Reviews

Goodreads review by Scott on June 03, 2023

Iain Banks was a genius and The Bridge is one of his greatest works. Few would disagree with the first statement, but some might disagree with the last. Why? Because this novel utilizes a pretty cheesy central plot device – (view spoiler)[ that the events occurring are the dreams of a man in a coma. If this puts yo (hide spoiler)]......more

Goodreads review by Manny on November 21, 2008

Banks apparently thinks this is his best novel, and I agree. A very fine interleaving of dream and reality, without making the connections overly clear. Kafka meets the Wizard of Oz.......more

Goodreads review by Daniel C on January 25, 2024

This review contains a mild spoiler. I don't know if you can call it a spoiler, because the Amazon book description as well as the Publishers Weekly review both give it away. I think that's a crying shame, although it's not really a spoiler that would take a lot of brain cells to figure out on your......more

Goodreads review by Oscar on October 18, 2017

Con Banks se cumple una máxima: nunca escribe dos veces la misma historia. Y esto no es nada sencillo, ya que en un momento u otro todos los escritores caen en el autoplagio. La historia es apasionante. John Orr, nuestro protagonista, vive en una ciudad que no es tal. Se trata de un puente de unas di......more

Goodreads review by Leo on June 26, 2013

What the hell this is so boring and aimless, and just not very well crafted either. I have to return to Murakami's rule from 1Q84: if the reader hasn't seen something before, you should take extra time to describe it. And I knew it. I knew if I even caught a sniff of criticism of this book they would......more

Quotes

Iain Banks had a restless and expansive imagination; no two books ever ploughed the same furrow, which made any new title all the more exciting, and makes picking a favourite all the more challenging. If I could take only one Iain Banks book to my desert island, it would be The Bridge... It's a demanding, exciting, thought-provoking book written in evocative, often lyrical prose. Part of the reason I love it so much is the setting - the Forth Bridge that links Fife, where I grew up, with Edinburgh, where I live now Guardian

Great artistry, great virtuosity... great exuberance New Statesman

The Bridge is serious, but playful; it is full of throwaway jokes, minor tangles for the reader/writer to sort out, political/cultural references to the kind of reality that rarely gets into British literature, and nuggets of surprising truth juxtaposed with outrageous lies... convincing in a way too little fantasy or mainstream literature is City Limits

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