The Bridge On The River Kwai

Oct 25, 2024 8:27 AM

Author:Pierre Boulle

The Bridge on the River Kwai tells the story of three POWs who endure the hell of the Japanese camps on the Burma-Siam railway - Colonel Nicholson, a man prepared to sacrifice his life but not his dignity; Major Warden, a modest hero, saboteur and deadly killer; Commander Shears, who escaped from hell but was sent back.

Ordered by the Japanese to build a bridge, the Colonel refuses, as it is against regulations for officers to work with other ranks. The Japanese give way but, to prove a point of British superiority, construction of the bridge goes ahead - at great cost to the men under Nicholson's command.

Reviews

A fine ironic novel, that is yet another French tribute to British eccentricity

—— Observer

Stirring and imaginative

—— New Statesman

Unforgettable

—— New Statesman

Anna Funder proved herself a first-rate reporter with Stasiland - now she appears as a compelling novelist in a dark story of German emigres in the 1930s, struggling to warn the indifferent English against the Nazis

—— Claire Tomalin

The subtlety of Anna Funder's novel is in the elegance of her precise prose, and in her painstaking portrait of an ordinary woman swept up in extraordinary events...The result is a strong and impressively humane novel

—— Ruth Scurr , TLS

A superb novel that transcends its setting...This book is a wonder. Do, please, read it

—— The Spectator

History, like hope, is not something to be solved, but to be carried. Anna Funder has written an essential novel about how we carry the bricks of history on our backs, and how we continually build new homes from the material of the past. All That I Am is an intimate exploration of human connection and our responsibility to one another. Funder breathes life into Kundera's aperçu that the struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting

—— Colum McCann

A seamless and powerful tale...the book is far more than "faction"; Funder has successfully transformed the material into a narrative of individual endeavour and survival, that examines universal human themes...Dora and Ruth, especially, convey a sense of truthfulness and decency that transcends their time and should inspire us, even now, to expose injustice and tyranny

—— Rachel Hore , Independent on Sunday

The strengths of Funder's writing are emotional and imaginative.In what she has to say about love, loss and betrayal there is profound truth

—— The Times

Emotional novels populated by loveable, believable characters are what Jojo Moyes does best. A hugely enjoyable, wide-ranging and believable novel. Beautifully done

—— Good Housekeeping

a book of signal wit and beauty that shows many ways of being a woman under intolerable strain... The electrifying ubiquity of danger - the novel is set in London under the Blitz - summons tenderness and the appetite for life. London itself breathes, turns and glows throughout

—— Candia McWilliam , The Lady

He [Anthony] hooks you in with his deep, complex characters; he meticulously sets the scene

—— www.thebookbag.co.uk

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