Description

Winner of The William Faulkner - William Wisdom Gold Medal

An American photographer in the war-torn Balkans struggles to rebuild his shattered life after the kidnapping of his son

American photographer Stephen Brings has fled a troubled relationship in Chicago and the painful memory of a kidnapped and still-missing son, only to stumble into the Balkans at the outbreak of the civil wars.

As he drifts through the countryside, Stephen struggles to resolve the trauma and sorrow of losing his son, and soon the landscape begins to mirror his own inner battles. After a return trip to America fails to heal the rift between himself and the mother of his child, Stephen returns to Sarajevo, where he begins a project to document images of the Bosnian people---not war images, but personal portraits of an embattled nation. There he finds himself falling in love with a German journalist, who helps to heal his ailing body and to overcome his tragic loss.

The Goat Bridge is an unforgettable tale of memory and oblivion, a probing story of loss and redemption, of letting go and holding on, and of the universal human search for meaning. In the end, it is also a love story about finding the wisdom and courage to surrender to one's own and another's heart.

Praise for The Goat Bridge

"Brilliant.... The intricately layered narrative, moving back and forth in time and space, builds to a conclusion both bloody and subtle...."
- Chicago Tribune

"Touched with some of the aphoristic delicacy of Milan Kundera, and searching in the mode of Graham Greene, McNally's tale of redemption nonetheless has a sinewy elegance entirely its own."
- Publishers Weekly

"[A] lacerating and exquisite novel of loss and mourning...."
- Booklist: A 2005 Editors' Choice

Extended Copyright Information

Copyright 2005 by T.M. McNally.

All rights reserved.

Previously published by the University of Michigan Press.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

Cover image by James Lauritz/Getty images.

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About the Author

T. M. McNally is the author of the story collections: Quick, which won the 2004 Michigan Literary Fiction Award, and Low Flying Aircraft, which received the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. His two previous novels are Until Your Heart Stops and Almost Home. He teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Arizona State University.

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Opening Lines (Experimental)

The wind was cold, as if from nowhere. On the flight, Zurich to O’Hare, he had catnapped fitfully. The sky was full of winter storm-clouds, and somewhere over western Pennsylvania, a mile or so still into the sky, he had stepped into the lavatory to change the bandage on his recently cut hand. It ...

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Copyright

Copyright 2005 by T.M. McNally.

All Rights Reserved.

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