The Broken Bridge

Written by Philip Pullman

Narrated by Miriam Margolyes

At 16, Ginny finds that her love of painting connects her to the artistic Haitian mother she never knew and eases the isolation she feels as the only mixed-race teen in her Welsh village. When she learns she has a half-brother by her father's first marriage, her world is shattered. Ginny embarks on a quest for the truth that will allow her to claim her artistic heritage—and face her father.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Mar 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781441875730

Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman (b. 1946) is one of the world’s most acclaimed children’s authors, his bold, brilliant books having set new parameters for what children’s writing can say and do. He is best known for the His Dark Materials trilogy, installments of which have won the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Book of the Year Award. In 2003, the trilogy came third in the BBC’s Big Read competition to find the nation’s favorite book, and in 2005 he was awarded the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, an international prize for children’s literature. In 2007, Northern Lights became a major Hollywood film, The Golden Compass, starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. Pullman has published nearly twenty books, and when he’s not writing he likes to play the piano (badly), draw, and make things out of wood.

Reviews for The Broken Bridge

[salsabrarian · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Narrated by Miriam Margolyes. It’s just been Ginny and her Dad as long as she can remember since her mother died shortly after Ginny’s birth. But now at age 16, Ginny begins to question who she is and what is her background, especially as a biracial child growing up in a white community. The secrets about her family history begin to unravel when Dad reveals he has a 16-year-old son. Margoyle's narration is quite expressive especially during scenes of strong emotion and even during quietly thoughtful moments.

[ma_washigeri · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed it being set in Wales - and enjoyed the story and the characters.

[advakramer-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A sweet coming-of-age kind of story for the young adult. Unfortunately, I couldn't connect emotionally to this book, but this is completely individual.

[jasonlf · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An early young adult novel by Philip Pullman, it is similar in character to his The White Mercedes. Although no where nearly as good as that one, it is still worth reading.The novel is about a sixteen year old girl Ginny who grows up with a single father father in a coastal village in Wales. Her mother, she is told, is a Haitian artist. Over the course of the novel she learns that a number of her most deeply held truths are anything but. A half brother she never knew about moves in with her and she eventually uncovers more and more about her past and the past of her father.Throughout the "broken bridge" functions as both a central piece of the story (a literal broken bridge that was damaged in an accident around when she was born) and also a metaphor for her various relationships all in various states of repair.The book does not have one central revelation or plot twist that puts everything in perspective, instead it is an unfolding of Ginny's awareness of herself and the friends and relatives that surround her.

[dodau_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A story of Ginny, a girl out of place in her small village. When events from the past come crashing into the present she discovers secrets about herself and her father.As always an enjoyable, well writen book by a great author

[ed9pendragon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"Coming-of-age", "teenage-angst", "identity-crisis" -- yes, these are all appropriate labels to pin on this novel but they only convey part of what Pullman is about. This is also about a sense of place: the northern coast of Cardigan Bay, somewhere around Harlech perhaps, with its mix of Welsh speakers and incomers set in a picturesque but haunting landscape. This too is about what it is to be an artist, with your peculiar personal viewpoint to somehow express in an unspoken language that not everyone may understand. Pullman's narrative skill is evident throughout, drawing this reader onwards, and there is much vivid characterisation. For fans of His Dark Materials and the Sally Lockhart series there is even a little bit of the supernatural suggested, curious perhaps for an avowed atheist writer but convincingly worked in.

[norabelle414 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This man really has a knack for writing dynamic female characters, it's quite impressive. This book could almost be in the Sally Lockheart Trilogy (The Ruby in the Smoke). It's basically a Victorian thriller for a younger audience, set in Wales. Interesting. Pullman makes it work though. It's just dark and mysterious and slightly insane enough to be intriguing, but it's not overwhelming.

[myopicbookworm · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A teen-angst novel centred on the heroine's crisis of personal identity and trust in her father when she discovers that much of what she knows of her family and origin is an invention. Enjoyable, with some memorable scenes, though one or two characters are over-caricatured to make a point. MB 9-iv-2008

[extrajoker · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

first line: "One day in the school playground they'd said, Eeny, meeny, miney, Mo', Catch a nigger by his toe, and they'd all looked at Ginny and laughed."If I had to label it, I'd call The Broken Bridge a coming-of-age novel. The protagonist, Ginny, is a biracial girl living in England with her white father. Pullman deftly and unflinchingly handles weighty themes -- race, abuse, abandonment -- and the fact that there's always more innocence to be lost. Still, the dark aspects of the story are balanced by love and strength and simple joys.