New York Times Literary Treat of the Week....

Orringer, Julie. The Invisible Bridge.

A sometimes overlooked fact about the Holocaust is that over 400,000 Hungarian Jews died at Nazi hands. Orringer, whose short story collection “How to Breathe Underwater” (also at Merrick Library) won two Pushcart Prizes, makes all too real in fiction what was faced by Hungary before and during World War Two. Andras Levy was a future architect studying in late 1930s Paris when his scholarship was cancelled by anti-Jewish laws. Andras does not return home alone. His wife, Klara, a ballet teacher has ties to a wealthy family in Hungary. They are separated when Andras is sent to a war labor camp where he is reunited with brother Tibor and contributes to a “subversive” camp newspaper. Meanwhile, Klara’s family fortune is bled dry by bribes paid to a puppet national government in order to keep a dark secret. An epilogue set in America serves as an effective backdrop to wind up this history-based saga of travail and tragedy.
Reviewed by Librarian, Bob.