A man on the edge. A nation on the brink. A secret that could change it all.
The small, unnamed Eastern bloc country of Olen Steinhauer's debut novel "The Bridge of Sighs" is making its first tentative steps towards democracy. By command of the party chairman, the labour camps are being emptied of innocent civilians. The amnesty has begun. But life isn't easy for the celebrated author, Ferenc Kolyeszar.
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Summary
A man on the edge. A nation on the brink. A secret that could change it all.
The small, unnamed Eastern bloc country of Olen Steinhauer's debut novel "The Bridge of Sighs" is making its first tentative steps towards democracy. By command of the party chairman, the labour camps are being emptied of innocent civilians. The amnesty has begun. But life isn't easy for the celebrated author, Ferenc Kolyeszar.
Description
A man on the edge. A nation on the brink. A secret that could change it all.Eastern-bloc Europe, 1956.Ferenc Kolyeszar, homicide detective, is finding his life increasingly frustrating.His career as a published author appears to be at a standstill, his job is acquiring a political dimension that is making him uncomfortable, and his wife is cheating on him with a colleague.Then the celebrated painter Antonin Kullmann is found dead, his arms and legs shattered, his body set on fire. It's an exceptionally brutal murder and, as an artist himself, Ferenc becomes obsessed with solving the case. Peeling away the layers of deception and duplicity that surround the case, Ferenc discovers a secret - a secret with devastating repercussions, particularly in this politically turbulent time.As his country moves from a tenuous democracy into a brutal totalitarian state, Ferenc learns what it means to betray others, and what it means to be betrayed.
Critic Reviews
“'Makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up'”
Guardian'We can only marvel at the rumbling undertone of dread that Steinhauer builds around what appears to be a routine investigation of a suicide but turns out to be just the tip of a murderous political conspiracy'
New York Times Book Review'Steinhauer successfully conjures up the grey, dehumanised world of a nascent communist state, which provides a suitably chilling backdrop to his hero's quest to unearth a secret that threatens to ruin the lives of many' Daily Mail
'Good enough to suggest comparison with Graham Greene: places the author in the forefront of contemporary suspense writers' Kirkus Review
About the Author
OLEN STEINHAUER was born in Virginia, USA and studied in Romania on a Fulbright scholarship. While there, he wrote The Bridge of Sighs, his highly acclaimed first novel. He lives in Budapest.
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