The Bridge

Enza Gandolfo’s tragic story “The Bridge” is based on Australia’s greatest industrial catastrophe. The narrative follows the lives of Jo, a 2009 high school student, and Antonello, a 22-year-old Italian immigrant who works on the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne in the 1970s.

Antonello’s world falls apart as the bridge collapses, killing 35 of his coworkers. Jo’s life, however, takes a drastically different turn due to an error. Class, guilt, moral responsibility, forgiveness, redemption, survival, and the resiliency of the human spirit are among the themes that are explored in the novel.