Naissance d'un pont

the long version

From Maylis de Kerangal comes this story of a dozen men and women – engineers, designers, machinery operators, cable riggers – all employees of an international consortium charged with building a bridge somewhere in a mythical and fantastic California. Their collective effort to complete the megaproject recounts one of the oldest of human dramas, to domesticate – and to radically transform – our world through built form, with all the dramatic tension it brings: a threatened strike, an environmental dispute, sabotage, accidents, career moves, and love affairs … Here generations and social classes cease to exist, and everyone and everything converges toward the bridge as metaphor, a cross-cultural impression of America today.