The Bridge of San Luis Rey

About this book

At noon on Friday, 20 July 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru, a rope bridge woven by the Incas, breaks and throws five travellers into the gorge below. Brother Juniper, a Franciscan friar who sees it happen, sets out to discover whether their deaths were an accident or part of God's plan by investigating the lives of the victims: an eccentric old marquesa who writes brilliant letters to her daughter, a young orphan girl, a grieving twin brother, an old man of the theatre and a small boy.

Context and significance

Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) published the novel in 1927, and it won the Pulitzer Prize the following year. Its last line, 'There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love', is often quoted. Compare Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop.

About the author