Though Penny is already a ghost in the present tense of the book, it is her luminous strength that holds the boys together, even in death: The first person narrative with its courier font openings addresses the reader directly, asking us to participate in the story making: “I’m sure you’ve met certain people in this world and heard their stories of lucklessness, and you wonder what they did to deserve it.” (67) It brings in almost absurd referents into a domestic Sydney suburban landscape, from the ever-present presence of Michelangelo viz a fictionalised book titled The Quarryman passed on in a roundabout way from father to son, to Homer’s Odyssey which underscores many of the names in the book including Penelope, the Dunbar matriarch, and an oddly lucid mule named Achilles. It’s also about the nature and power of language and to that extent there is a meta-fictional quality to the work. It’s a story of many things, not just a child’s attempt to document the loss and redemption of his family, though that is the driving plot line. Bridge of Clay is a beautiful, complex book full of subtlety, metaphor, and human connection. Of course that plot summary is a vast simplication. Clay is the fourth brother, and the story pivots around him and the pact he makes with his father to build a bridge. The story is ostensibly about the five brothers of the Dunbar family, whose mother dies of Cancer and whose dad leaves them shortly afterwards. It isn’t easy but the boys manage to grow up, acquiring a variety of animals and bruises both literal and metaphoric as they try to get by without adults. As is always the case in every Zusak novel, the narration is complex, shifting and unhinging the reader by playing with notions of time, and changing the spotlight and the points of nostalgic engagement. I imagine it must have been difficult for Zusak to work under such a heavy shadow, but Bridge of Clay is no disappointment. That’s a big statement, though I can’t deny that, after the delight of The Book Thief, I, like many of Zusak’s fans, was certainly anticipating his next book. My advanced reading copy of Bridge of Clay has a black cover that says, in large letters, “The Most Anticipated Book of the Decade”.

The bridge of clay