The Bridge [suggested by Clare Freeman]
The man who wakes up in the extraordinary world of a bridge has amnesia, and his doctor doesn’t seem to want to cure him. Does it matter? Exploring the bridge occupies most of his days. But at night there are his dreams. Dreams in which desperate men drive sealed carriages across barren mountains to a bizarre rendezvous; an illiterate barbarian storms an enchanted tower under a stream of verbal abuse; and broken men walk forever over bridges without end, taunted by visions of a doomed sexuality.
Lying in bed unconscious after an accident wouldn’t be much fun, you’d think. Oh yes? It depends who and what you’ve left behind.
Which is the stranger reality, day or night? Frequently hilarious and consistently disturbing, THE BRIDGE is a novel of outrageous contrasts, constructed chaos and elegant absurdities. [Product description from Amazon]
Wikipedia page.
About the Author
Wikipedia entry.
Author’s website.
Shortlisted for this month
Back to our previous book selection method this month (with last month’s experimental book choosing method seen as a success but not something we want to do all the time) and Clare’s other choices were:
Time’s Arrow
In Time’s Arrow the doctor Tod T. Friendly dies and then feels markedly better, breaks up with his lovers as a prelude to seducing them, and mangles his patients before he sends them home. And all the while Tod’s life races backward toward the one appalling moment in modern history when such reversals make sense. [Product description from Amazon]
Wikipedia entry.
About the Author
Wikipedia entry.
Author’s website.
Life After Life
Probably the newest book ever suggested for Chorlton Chapters (and therefore not to be confused with the 1975 book of the same title written by psychiatrist Raymond Moody), at the time of writing this has only been out for exactly two weeks and has already garnered 410 ratings and 169 reviews on goodreads.
What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right?
During a snowstorm in England in 1910, Ursula Beresford Todd (ikr!) is born and dies before she can take her first breath.
During a snowstorm in England in 1910, the same baby is born and lives to tell the tale.
What if there were second chances? And third chances? In fact an infinite number of chances to live your life? Would you eventually be able to save the world from its own inevitable destiny? And would you even want to?
Life After Life follows Ursula Todd as she lives through the turbulent events of the last century again and again. With wit and compassion, Kate Atkinson finds warmth even in life’s bleakest moments, and shows an extraordinary ability to evoke the past. Here she is at her most profound and inventive, in a novel that celebrates the best and worst of ourselves. [Product description from the author’s website]
About the Author