BRIDGE OF CLAY by Markus Zusak

Who didn't love The Book Thief? And how many years have we waited for this writer's next great novel? Too many, but don't for a minute think this is anything like the other! This has made the latest list of top 100 best reads in NZ, which is why I include it here. For me personally it would not make that list. Firstly it is very long, very drawn out, and at times I thought it would never end, never be resolved. I had trouble making all the connections with the author's meanderings and musings at the expense of the story. I just wanted him to get on with it! The writing is amazing, if you love reading for the sake of how words are put together and pictures they make then this is for you. If you have the patience to focus on the story, and the relationships between the characters as well, then you will also enjoy this. Briefly, Clay is a teenage boy, one of the 5 Dunbar brothers, ranging in age from 18 down to 11, living alone in suburban Sydney following the death of their mother and desertion by their father. Oldest boy Matthew is the prime narrator, although the story does move back and forth telling the story of each of the parents and the family in its early days. So much love there, and heart ache and sadness. Clay is the son who is determined to somehow fix everything, the physical bridge he builds with his dad also being symbolic of the bridge being built between the boys themselves and with their father. It is outstanding.