The other side of the bridge : a novel

Format:

Book

Title:

The other side of the bridge : a novel

Author:

Wright, Camron author

ISBN:

9781629724102

Publication:

[Salt Lake City, Utah] : Shadow Mountain, [2018]

Physical Description:

343 pages ; 21 cm

Summary:

Alone and struggling with the loss of her father, an iron worker on the Golden Gate Bridge who was pulled to his death while trying to save someone from jumping, Katie Connelly immerses herself in her job at San Francisco State University. While researching the history of the bridge, she finds a journal from an Irish worker named Patrick O'Riley hidden behind one of the panels on the bridge and tries to track down a member of the O'Riley family so she can return the family heirloom. Coincidentally, Dave Riley, a widower from New York and grandson of Patrick O'Riley, is on a motorcycle trip to ride to the Golden Gate Bridge. Overwhelmed with grief for his lost family he, too, contemplates jumping from the bridge. Katie helps him and is able to return the journal to him.

Subject(s):

Bereavement -- Fiction.

Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco, Calif.) -- Fiction.

San Francisco (Calif.)

Geographic Term:

Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco, Calif.) -- Fiction.

San Francisco (Calif.)

California -- San Francisco.

California -- San Francisco -- Golden Gate Bridge.

Genre:

Fiction.

Novels.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Woodburn Public Library	Wright	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Silver Falls Library	FIC WRIGHT	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Two coasts. Two strangers.

And a bridge that silently beckons them both.

Katie Connelly has lived in San Francisco all her life. Her late father made his career on the Golden Gate Bridge, and the many stories of how he saved jumpers still haunt her. And now her job assignment is to write about the history of the bridge--a history that includes a secret journal about a promise ring and a love story that may be the answer to her unresolved sorrow.

Meanwhile, Dave Riley, a marketing executive in New York, has sorrows of his own. Grasping at straws after tragedy strikes his family, he decides to follow a daydream that has turned into an obsession: to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge on a motorcycle on the Fourth of July.

Does the bridge somehow mysteriously hold the answers both Katie and Dave are looking for? Or will they find something completely different when they get to the other side?

Author Notes

Camron Wright holds a master's degree in writing and public relations. He says he began writing to get out of attending MBA school, and it proved the better decision. His first book, Letters for Emily , was a Reader's Choice award winner, as well as a selection of the Doubleday Book Club and the Literary Guild. Camron is the author of the award-winning novels The Rent Collector and The Orphan Keeper .

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Wright (The Orphan Keeper) explores how far obsession can take someone in his fourth novel, which too neatly ties together two story lines, each focusing on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Katie Connelly, a San Francisco State University research assistant, is tasked with preparing a primer on the bridge for the state's school system. in Looking through her deceased father's desk, she comes upon a journal written by one of the bridge's construction engineers in the 1930s. (Her father, coincidentally, was an ironworker who helped maintain the bridge.) Her fascination with the journal supersedes her assignment as she seeks to find out more about one of the original bridge workers and his heirs. Dave Riley, a stressed-out East Coast marketing executive, is torn between his high-pressure job and his responsibilities as husband to the love of his life and father of three. Then family tragedy strikes and he's left with only one thing: his dream of riding across the Golden Gate Bridge-which his grandfather worked on-on a motorcycle on July 4th. That the protagonists will cross paths is inevitable, and though the plot is contrived to serve a "happily ever after" narrative, there is an affirming underlying message that the goodness in people can help others overcome hardship, making this a satisfying novel that will appeal to a wide audience. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

Wright (The Orphan Keeper, 2016) follows the seemingly separate lives of two grieving strangers. In San Francisco, Katie Connelly has finished her degree but continues to work as a research assistant as she struggles with the loss of her father, an ironworker who helped construct the Golden Gate Bridge. While working on a history of the bridge, she discovers a diary written by one of the original builders and becomes obsessed with returning it to the author's family. On the other side of the country, New York marketing executive Dave Riley, reeling from an unimaginable tragedy, embarks on a cross-country trip to fulfill a dream of riding a motorcycle across the Golden Gate Bridge on the Fourth of July. Dave's journey and Katie's search appear to be leading the two strangers to the bridge and each other. But Wright has more in store than a meet-cute or a conventional romance, and sure enough, his characters' stories intersect in ways that are surprising and ultimately satisfying.--Harmon, Lindsay Copyright 2018 Booklist