My latest library loot ~ have you read this book?

The Bridge of San Luis Rey ~ by Thornton Wilder, 1927, historical fiction (Peru), 133 pages

In eighteenth-century Peru, the collapse of a fabled bridge sets in motion a profound exploration of fate, love, and the interconnectedness of human lives.  The story centers around Brother Juniper, a devout Franciscan monk who witnesses the accident and becomes obsessed with understanding the workings of divine providence.  Motivated by his belief that the bridge's collapse was not a random event, he embarks on a quest to investigate the lives of the five victims who perished in the tragedy.  Through meticulous research and interviews, Brother Juniper uncovers the fascinating and often intertwined backstories of the victims:  

1. the Marquesa de Montemayor;
2. her companion Pepita, a young orphan;
3. Esteban, a scribe involved in a complicated love story;
4. Uncle Pio, the devoted valet of actress Camila Perichole;
5. and Jaime, her son.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey was Thornton Wilder's second novel, published when he was just thirty, and it won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1928.  He poses profound questions about the nature of existence, the role of chance, and whether an elusive hand of destiny shapes our lives.

Wilder sets the action in Lima, Peru, in 1714, where a Franciscan monk witnesses the collapse of a bridge that has stood for over a century, killing the five people on it.  The priest becomes determined to develop a scientific method for calculating what personality characteristics the five might have shared that would make God ready to call them to him.  In the novel, Brother Juniper spends years compiling data about each victim in order to draw his conclusions.

Almost since its first publication, The Bridge of San Luis Rey has been recognized as a literary masterpiece.  Its unique mixture of the spiritual with the humane has given readers throughout the decades a point of reference when considering the apparent horrors that can occur in a world that is explained increasingly through cold scientific eyes.  In his memorial tribute to the victims of the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, British prime minister Tony Blair quoted from the book, and since then it has become even more popular, as the world has struggled to reconcile faith with catastrophe.