The Other Side of the Bridge

“Good luck. Maybe that’s all it was. Maybe the whole of life depended on how you tried, how determined you were, how sensible, how smart: maybe the whole shooting match depended on luck.” This quiet novel unfolds slowly, much like Spring does in the frozen north of Canada. It is a family drama about the Dunns that spans several decades. There is a tenderness to the writing, a sense that the world is about to change and that even this small, forgotten town will feel the consequences. There are moments when TOSOTB will break your heart, not in one quick blow, but in a hundred subtle ways; in words left unsaid and in longings unshared. Here is a story of ordinary folk who blunder their way through life, much like we do, each with their failings and strengths, their hopes and their dreams. It didn’t require any effort on my part to immerse myself in their lives, to cheer them on and to shed a tear on their behalf. And when Arthur, Jake and Laura acted predictably, as people do, it didn’t detract from the story. On the contrary, it felt perfectly normal. So, when the secret is revealed, as it inevitably will, it is not a huge surprise. It’s in keeping with these characters that we have come to know so well. These old friends that we don’t really want to say goodbye to. But we must. So we do but rest easy in the knowledge that they will stay with us for a long time. “It was so easy for women, their arms opened out instinctively and they gathered in whatever hurt there was, and that was that, they didn’t even have to think about it.”