The Bridge of San Luis Rey

By Thornton Wilder,

Book cover of The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Book description

“There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.”

Discover a Masterpiece of Timeless Intrigue

Step back in time with Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Bridge of San Luis Rey. First published in 1927,…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Bridge of San Luis Rey as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I first read this one in high school, and to say it blew me away is an understatement. Five people in sixteenth-century Peru die in a bridge collapse, and a devout Catholic priest sets out to see why—what about God’s plan for the world can be discerned from an examination of why these five, and no others, died that day.

This book's impact on my worldview was enormous: how we take what we experience and use it to make sense of our world. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve reread it, and it still strikes me to…

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