The Bridge

by Colm Tóibín

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Long Island

The bridge connecting the two valleys was almost built.

Miquel and his father are living an uneasy life together in his mother's house in the Pyrenees, the house she had been returning to on the day she died. A new bridge, connecting the two valleys, is almost complete, which will end the valley's isolation and create an easier route to smuggle contraband deep into the mountains. Where Miquel's father imagines opportunity, Miquel foresees disaster and an exposure to the outside world for which his father is desperately unprepared.

Colm Tóibín's exhilarating short novel contains vast inner and outer worlds within its pages. With meticulous precision and an unerring eye Toibin captures lives caught between the past and the present, and the journey of a young man seeking connection, haunted by loss.

Genres: Fiction, Ireland, Literary Fiction, Irish Literature, Novella, Gay

125 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 3, 2026

About the author

Colm Tóibín FRSL, is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, journalist, critic, and poet. Tóibín is currently Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University in Manhattan and succeeded Martin Amis as professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester.

Reviews

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

literally the GOAT idk what else to say

[Andy Weston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in a remote village in the Catalan Pyrenees of the 1950s, this begins with the news that a bridge connecting Llavorsi and Rialp is nearing completion, and though it is seen by some as progress’, many are concerned, not least as it could disrupt the local smuggling trade which has previously taken place by a lengthy journey on donkeys.

This is a follow-up to his (also excellent) novella A Long Winter, though twenty years splits the two books being published. Coincidentally, A Long Winter has just been advocated as a film.

Set in such a spectacular location, the beauty of the book though lies in its young protagonist, Miguel, a gay man in Franco’s Spain, whose alcoholic mother died the previous winter, lost in a storm. This is a sad tale, one of betrayal, costly mistakes and bad luck. It is beautifully written, a splendid example of what can be done in just more than 100 pages, and a powerful story of loss and grief, quite devastating in its last chapters.

[Rebecc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Years down the line from A Long Winter Colm Toibin opts to take Miquel & his father in a very unexpected direction. Time finds them in a different yet equally unhappy house following the death of his mother, her body was eventually located & buried, but the remaining family is as dysfunctional as ever. We get some closure on Jordi & that he returned on hearing his mother was dead, but was quite rightly furious with the circumstances & immediately left again. Miquel stayed with the morose father & probably regrets that decision when the titular new bridge opens & they are quickly arrested for smuggling (following a tip off) & sentenced to 2 years in prison where in that enforced separation Miquel develops a close physical relationship with his cellmate & his father has a stroke & eventually dies. Possibly the bleakest overall book I've read this year, but Toibin's writing is so bewitching & atmospheric that I was enthralled for the whole thing. Would love to hear him read this on a winters night by a roaring fire. Magical.

[susanprosa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don’t you hate when writers rush to publish, instead of taking the time to give us something cleverer, deeper, and stronger?

It feels like such a missed opportunity. A little more time, a little more care, and it could have become something truly memorable. Instead, we are left with a book that promises brilliance but delivers disappointment, all surface, no soul.

[T P Kennedy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nicely written but I'm not sure why this was expanded to a novella. It's a bleak and nihilistic story expanded beyond what it can bear. It closes off his earlier novella but meanders along and ends on a note of indecision. An annoying little read.

[Brian McClean · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully controlled novel about connection, secrecy and the difficulty of turning desire into belonging. Miquel lives in a world that is becoming physically more connected while remaining emotionally and morally constricted, and Tóibín makes much of that tension through grief, homosexuality, imprisonment and the literal bridge itself. There is a furtiveness running through the book, in Miquel’s sexuality, in his father’s smuggling, in what families conceal and in what people cannot bring themselves to say. The relationship between Miquel and Manolo is the great exception: tender, non-transactional and all the more moving because so much else in the novel is shaped by secrecy, and emotional silence.

At times, though, you can see Tóibín arranging the symbolic furniture. The bridge, the smuggling, the hidden sexuality, the betrayals and the imprisonment align a little too neatly. Tóibín’s restraint, which is one of his great strengths, occasionally becomes emotional undernourishment.

Still, the central idea is a powerful one: people can desperately want connection while lacking the language, freedom or relationship through which to achieve it. The bridge opens the world, but it does not necessarily make anyone free.

[Steve · Rating 3.25 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written book, but I find the story a little unbalanced.

While I really enjoyed the first half of the book, in which Miguel's character is developing interestingly, I found the second half rather weak and stagnant.

However, the writing is absolutely fantastic, seldom read a book, that carries calmness this stunningly.

[Owen Grogan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the 120 pages but it feels unfinished.

[J M Miles]

A strange little book. I thought it was about a bridge but it was about a father and son being arrested and put in prison for smuggling.
Bizarre!!

[Lucy Preston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Breathtaking prose that reveals depths in so few pages.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

In so many ways this was a sad and disturbing story to read, although the author's wonderful, unsentimental prose evocatively captured the fraught relationships and the setting against which the story unfolded. As always, Colm Toibin's understanding of human relationships shone through.

[Milly Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short novella and the follow up to The Long Winter. Some time has passed since the events in The Long Winter and we are again with Miguel, his father and Manolo. A new bridge is being built which will have an impact on the community and its activities. This is a bleak little story and it went in a direction that I was not expecting. I did not expect Miquel and his father to be doing what they are doing in this novel - I never got a hint of this in the previous book. The novella deals with the relationship between father and son which was not easy in the first book and hasn’t improved now. And, Miquel is still missing his mother. I’m trying not to give too much away but will say that once again, Colm Toibin’s writing kept me entranced and the new characters that we meet this time are a very varied bunch. As i said previously, this is a sad little story and I didn’t glimpse any joy. Even though the ending left me curious I am so glad that I found this.

[Will Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this in one sitting and was enthralled.
Transported to another time, another place and another life. Loved it.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is published in the UK, so this is a post publication review.

This is a short novel about the strained relationship between a father and son. I was not grabbed by this as much as some of Colm Toibin's other stories.

[Wes · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting short story or better a brief snapshot in time of a father and son full time farmers and part time smugglers. The new bridge opened in the town could be the bridge between past and modern or between a strong controlling father and a son especially towards the end. This story was left unresolved and I like it that way.

[Bhaskar Thakuria · Rating 3 out of 5]

There has been a trend in recent years for Colm Tóibín to focus more on the merits of short fiction. And, indeed, this year has been no different. This very year, Mr. Tóibín has released a wonderful collection of stories and, to top it all, another novella length narrative following the one last year. There is an immediacy and directness to the narrative- a trait he possesses in scadfuls but which was more in evidence in his recent turnaround to the novella format. What stands out in this short novel is the wonderful simplicity to the narrative which attests true to the old adage where 'every word tells a story' with no superfluous or redundant word or phrase. It indeed stands true to the testament of Hemingway's wonderful creation in The Old Man and The Sea- which was measured and laconic prose at its finest. The story is about human relations and pitfalls that common man are bound to get mired with if they try to violate the rules of nature. It is a short narrative with verve and I was held in rapt attention from the very first page. However it ends on a strange note that left an odd aftertaste after the tale was long gone with its somewhat motley cast of characters!

[Cora McCormack · Rating 1 out of 5]

I bought this in a bookshop in Ireland in September 2026 so it has been released.

I’m sorry to say that I really didn’t enjoy this book at all, the blurb says it’s about the building of a bridge to a remote village and the changes said bridge will bring, however the core of the book centres on a young man’s (gay) sexual discovery, a topic, I personally, am not that interested in reading about, but each to their own I just would have liked to know that in advance.

On the positive the book was short, 120 small pages so I finished it, but didn’t enjoy it, and it’s the first book of his that I haven’t enjoyed.

[Jane Fudger · Rating 3 out of 5]

am a fan of Colm Toibins work but in recent times he has issued a number of seperate short stories Although I have enjoyed the individual stories I am not a fan of this sort of publication - it would be better to publish a collection.
Nevertheless thos is a story of a father and son whose fraught relationship is centred around their activities as smugglers and the father living in the past whilst the son looks to the future and new connections following the loss of his mother. A poignant story of relationships . A well written haunting story.

[Book Jester · Rating 1.5 out of 5]

This was only a short book but I still found it a bit of a chore to read. Not really quite sure what the point/message in it was at all but I quickly lost interest in it so I most likely missed something. I liked the setting of it but that is probably the best thing I can say about it. The sex scenes were pretty yucky, especially since I was dipping a pizza slice in mayonnaise whilst reading one of them. I was a bit disappointed overall because I've had Toibin's bestseller Long Island sitting on my TBR shelf for ages but now I'm not really in a hurry to pick it up.

[kim 🍄 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love short stories and this one definitely did not disappoint. I wish there was a little bit more towards the end though. I think there would have been some benefit to seeing Miquel through at least to the end of his prison sentence but that’s the consistent joy of short stories; your always left wanting more

[Jill Shaw Ruddock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Colm Tóibín is a brilliant writer, ( the magician is one of my all time favorite books) which made The Bridge all the more disappointing. There are beautiful sentences, but I found the story not developed and ultimately unrewarding. I kept waiting for something that would make the reading worthwhile. For an author of his calibre, this felt like a waste of time.

[Natalie M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking.

There is nothing quite like a beautifully written short story. The need to make every word have importance and the ability to convey so much with so little takes such mastery.

The overtness of aspects of this story will definitely be polarising, so read with an open mind.

[Suswati · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strange kind of tale leaving you confused over the point of it. Despite this, it's beautifully written.

[Soph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a hardcover edition which for some reason isn't on here

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautifully written but I didn’t understand why it was written. Odd ending too

[Kevin McMahon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me.

[Catriona Benn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the way he does sequels (compare Brooklyn and Long Island)

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Already published in UK

[Beverley Faulder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting little read!!

[Alan Fitzgerald-Clark · Rating 2.5 out of 5]

A short story following on from his novel, The Long Winter. Poignant addition but very, very short, and overly hyped. £12.99 😳