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The Bridge

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The Bridge

By: Iain Banks
Narrated by: Peter Kenny
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About this listen

A man lies in a coma after a near-fatal accident. His body broken, his memory vanished, he finds himself in the surreal world of the bridge - a world free of the usual constraints of time and space, a world where dream and fantasy, past and future, fuse. Who is this man? Where is he? Is he more dead than alive? Or has he never been so alive before?

©1986 Iain Banks (P)2013 Hachette Audio Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Science Fiction Fiction

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Critic reviews

"An exceptional talent... a totally absorbing read" ( The Times)
"A stunning book. Banks' powerful imagination is joined to a rare ability to be truly funny while exploring a nightmare world" ( Sunday Times)
"Banks turns inward to explore the complex, surreal microcosm of the human mind in a kaleidoscopic novel for sophisticated, literary readers of speculative fiction. Recommended." ( Library Journal)
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Iain Banks was my favourite author for many years (halted only by his rather selfish demise) and this was one of the first of his books that I read. This contains all of Banks key elements. It’s funny, heart warming, philosophical and despite being one of his mainstream novels it’s quite fantastical.

The audio book is beautifully performed and brings more humour to many of the lines than I read at the time. It’s a bit more Scottish than comes across from the written version but that’s not a bad thing. I found it hard to break off from the narrative and this book reminded me of what a terrible loss Banks was at far too young a year.

It’s possible you won’t enjoy this,
but if so it might be that books aren’t for you.

A Magical Book by a Master

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Brilliantly read by Peter Kenny (as always), but I spent most of the book waiting for something to happen that didn't.
This is one of those Banks books that basically says "here's some stuff that happened to someone" and for the vast majority of that stuff, you could remove massive chunks out of the book and it would make no difference at all to the overall narrative.
Granted, some of that stuff is interesting, entertaining and without fail well written, but you wouldn't miss anything if it wasn't there.

I have a confused opinion about these stories. The way Banks gets me inside the head of his characters is masterful and the book generated plenty of connection and emotion. But I can't help thinking "I wish there was more to this story"

Interesting but thin on plot

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Fantastic and weird and perfectly Scottish. The story reminds me of when I was recovering from a brain injury. A superb work from Banks, and an excellent performance by Peter Kenny.

Possibly the definitive Iain (non-M) Banks novel

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Great book wonderfully narrated. Fantastic performance by Peter Kenny. Interesting concept for the book, definitely had a good whiff of the culture about it.

really good

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I first read the bridge back in the early 90s and it gets better with every reading or listening in this case. Peter Kenny does his usual bang up job especially his take on the barbarian

One of the best books ever written

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