The Bridge

by Colm Tóibín

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, Literary Fiction, Irish Literature, Gay

128 pages, Hardcover

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]

literally the GOAT idk what else to say

[Rebecc]

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.

[Bhaskar Thakuria]

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!

[Jane Fudger]

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.

[Natalie M]

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]

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

[Soph]

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

[Julie]

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

[Kevin McMahon]

Not for me.

[Tandy Davies]

This was a perfect novella a tale of opportunity and oppression, of poverty and hope. Compulsive to read and at the same time a so often sad endictment of the communities that get forgotten and left behind