The Bridge over the River

Lynette is a dreamer. She likes to imagine herself floating on a magic carpet above the city of Prague. But suddenly her dream becomes a nightmare. The wooden puppet drives his black limo through the gates of the castle. She tries to escape into the fairytale world of the wild Waterman but the brutal events of history haul her into the real world.

About the Author :
Johannes Gramich was born in Munich in 1962. He moved to Wales in 1987 and now lives in Cardiff. Bohemian Exodus is the first English translation of his prize-winning German novel Die Brucke uber den Fluss. In it he draws on the experiences of his own family in Czechoslovakia and Germany in the period before, during and after the Second World War.

Review :
A haunting novel about growing up in a world unhinged by war; a novel about longing, loss, and the search for home. For anyone with an interest in twentieth century history who would like to find out what it might have been like to be on the other side during one of its major conflicts. Lynette is a dreamer. She likes to imagine herself floating on a magic carpet above the city where she lives, Prague. But suddenly her dream becomes a nightmare. The wooden puppet with the moustache drives his black limo through the gates of the castle. She tries to escape into the fairytale world of the wild Waterman but the brutal events of history haul her into the real world. Suddenly, Czechs, Germans, and Jews, who have lived side by side for years, become sworn enemies. Brutally expelled with her family from her homeland, joining the great exodus of Germans from Bohemia ... but to what promised land? In memory of the countless children, women and men who were killed or deported from their homelands at the behest or with tolerance of the West for having been unlucky enough to be born as Germans and for whom no Western ruler has ever laid down a wreath.
******************************** REVIEWS:
Thousands of people were killed or deported from their homelands during World War Two. This translation of a lyrical award-winning novel explores their story with the help of dreamy 12-year-old Lynette. It’s a sort of diary in the third person of a German family living in Czechoslovakia before the war and expelled along with other ethnic Germans on the outbreak of hostilities. Once in Germany, younger brother Bibs cuts his shoulder length hair, insists on being called Heinz, wears shorts and knitted cravat and joins the Hitler Youth movement. He charts the advance into Russia with pins on a map. Outside, men in uniform march past, empty inside, their uniforms and medals making them feel someone. Lynette's musical businessman father keeps the chaos at bay by playing the violin; her teacher wears a swastika on her lapel. As Germany begins to crumble Uncle Wenka devises a dance around the tables as part of family Christmas entertainment, with Lynette bringing up the rear grimacing as she eats an apple, signifying a bitter end. Lynette grows into womanhood musing that everyone is pushed about by fate, but no one admits it. When the Russians arrive the family is rounded up and deported in coal wagons, with nothing but the clothes they are standing in. Chubby Lynette grows thin and the family see for the first time the devastated cities of Dresden and Munich. This atmospheric, sensual and impressionistic novel by a writer now living in Cardiff chronicles a side of war seldom written by victors or the vanquished - the way an ordinary family holds onto life in the maelstrom of disorder. Its publication is another sign of an energetic, classy and often outward-looking Welsh publishing world. The Western Mail
The novel The Bridge over the River is very sensitively written and the narrative is compelling. The reversal of stereotypes in the displacement of the German family and Lynette's chronicling makes it ring like a mirror image of Anne Frank. Lynette's innocence of political pressures comes through strongly. The family's eventual sufferings are somehow signalled in the forebodings in the early passages, but they are still shocking when they occur. The book would make a good basis for a film script in the right hands. ICWales
The Bridge Over the River
Lynette is twelve years old when she begins to write a diary. It is 1941. But how to describe your family?
Father, respectable, speaking six languages but with one leg shorter than the other. Mutti, small, resourceful, fussy, like all mothers really. Heinz, her little brother, only just old enough for the gymnasium, playing with toy soldiers while listening to the advance of the glorious army across Russia. He wants to join when he's old enough. And then there's Baba, oh how to describe Baba and the Prager farm and Uncle Karl who plays chess at his café and will soon be fighting the Russian tanks? And Aunt Gudrun, who arrives from Berlin with Uncle Franz's baby, and Auntie Bertha and Uncle Wenka and Fräulein Pechwitz and the man who sells chocolates in the small shop on the corner of the street and...
In this patient and considered novel, Johannes Gramich uncovers a poignant story of a family caught between the worlds of language, history and the changing borders of a Europe twisted and torn by War.
It is the first translation of his prize-winning German novel Die Brücke uber den Fluss.