Novels
- The Invisible Bridge (2010)
- The Flight Portfolio (2019)
Collections
- How to Breathe Underwater (2003)
- Poolside (2007)
Novellas
- When She Is Old and I Am Famous (2015)
Novels Book Covers
Collections Book Covers
Novellas Book Covers
Julie Orringer Books Overview
The Invisible Bridge
Julie Orringer’s astonishing first novel, eagerly awaited since the publication of her heralded best selling short story collection, How to Breathe Underwater fiercely beautiful The New York Times; unbelievably good Monica Ali, is a grand love story set against the backdrop of Budapest and Paris, an epic tale of three brothers whose lives are ravaged by war, and the chronicle of one family s struggle against the forces that threaten to annihilate it. Paris, 1937. Andras L vi, a Hungarian Jewish architecture student, arrives from Budapest with a scholarship, a single suitcase, and a mysterious letter he has promised to deliver to C. Morgenstern on the rue de S vign . As he falls into a complicated relationship with the letter s recipient, he becomes privy to a secret history that will alter the course of his own life. Meanwhile, as his elder brother takes up medical studies in Modena and their younger brother leaves school for the stage, Europe s unfolding tragedy sends each of their lives into terrifying uncertainty. At the end of Andras s second summer in Paris, all of Europe erupts in a cataclysm of war. From the small Hungarian town of Kony r to the grand opera houses of Budapest and Paris, from the lonely chill of Andras s room on the rue des coles to the deep and enduring connection he discovers on the rue de S vign , from the despair of Carpathian winter to an unimaginable life in forced labor camps and beyond, The Invisible Bridge tells the story of a love tested by disaster, of brothers whose bonds cannot be broken, of a family shattered and remade in history s darkest hour, and of the dangerous power of art in a time of war. Expertly crafted, magnificently written, emotionally haunting, and impossible to put down, The Invisible Bridge resoundingly confirms Julie Orringer s place as one of today s most vital and commanding young literary talents. From the Hardcover edition.
How to Breathe Underwater
Nine fiercely beautiful, impossible to put down stories from a young writer who has already received immediate worldwide attention. Julie Orringer’s characters all of them submerged by loss, whether of parents or lovers or a viable relationship to the world in general struggle mightily against the wildly engulfing forces that threaten to overtake us all. All of them learn, gloriously if at great cost, How to Breathe Underwater. In Pilgrims, a band of motherless children torment each other on Thanksgiving day. In The Isabel Fish, the sole survivor of a drowning accident takes up scuba diving. In When She Is Old and I Am Famous, a young woman confronts the inscrutable power of her cousin s beauty A da. That is her terrible name. Ai ee duh: two cries of pain and one of stupidity . In The Smoothest Way Is Full of Stones, the failure of religious and moral codes to protect, to comfort, to offer solace is seen through the eyes of a group of Orthodox Jewish adolescents discovering the irresistible power of their burgeoning sexuality. In story after story, Orringer captures moments when the dark contours of the adult world come sharply into focus: Here are young people abandoned to their own devices, thrust too soon into predicaments of insoluble difficulty, and left to fend for themselves against the wide variety of human trouble. Buoyed by the exquisite tenderness of remembered love, they learn to take up residence in this strange new territory, if not to transcend it, and to fashion from their grief new selves, new lives. Orringer s debut collection blazes with emotion, with human appetite, with fortitude, with despair; these nine uncommonly wise and assured stories introduce an astonishing new talent.
Poolside
Poolside is a waterproof collection of fourteen stories about the satisfactions and tribulations of swimming lessons, summer scenes at club pools, chance encounters at the rec center and just plain floating. The perfect companion for a day of dipping and people watching, Poolside is as necessary as sunscreen for achieving maximum Poolside bliss. Poolside features internationally acclaimed authors Alice Adams, John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates, David Foster Wallace, Ernest Hemingway, John Cheever, and AM Homes, as well as emerging voices such as Julie Orringer and Andrea Lee.
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