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Ratings: ★★★★☆ (4.6/5)
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Literary Fiction, Epic Fiction

Book Review:
Maylis de Kerangal's ''Birth of a Bridge'' is a thrilling and immersive reading experience—a novel that reads like a cinematic epic, pulsing with energy, ambition, and a cast of characters as vast and varied as the American landscape it portrays. The premise is simple: a small, forgotten town in Southern California decides to build a monumental bridge. But from this simple seed, de Kerangal grows a sprawling, vibrant narrative that captures the full sweep of human endeavor. The novel follows the project from its conception in the mind of the driven Mayor Boa to its construction by a global army of workers. We meet a multitude of characters—the visionary architect, the stoic construction bosses, the cooks feeding the masses, the Native Americans whose land is being transformed, and the drifters and dreamers who are drawn to the site. De Kerangal's prose is the real star here. It's exuberant, kinetic, and utterly distinctive—long, propulsive sentences that mimic the energy and momentum of the construction itself. She has a remarkable ability to zoom in on intimate moments of individual lives and then pull back to capture the grand, almost mythological scale of the project. The novel explores big ideas—globalization, man's relationship with nature, the clash between progress and tradition—but it never loses sight of the human hearts beating at its center. ''Birth of a Bridge'' is a modern epic, a story about the dream of building something new and the countless human stories that are woven into its creation. It's original, ambitious, and deeply rewarding. Highly recommended for readers who love bold, inventive literary fiction.