The Bridge of San Luis Rey: A Novel

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

“The essence of Mr. Wilder’s book is really the feeling in it; it is a ‘notation of the heart’ with sympathy. Gaily or sadly, but always with understanding, a belief in the miracle of love runs through it all.” —Times Literary Supplement (London)

"On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below." With this celebrated sentence Thornton Wilder begins The Bridge of San Luis Rey, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a novel beloved throughout the world.

By fate or chance, a monk has witnessed the collapse. Deeply moved by the tragedy, Brother Juniper embarks on a quest to prove that it was divine intervention, not chance, that led to the deaths of the five people crossing the bridge that day. His search leads readers on a timeless investigation into the nature of love and the meaning of the human condition..

This edition includes a foreword by acclaimed author Russell Banks and an afterword by Wilder's nephew, Tappan, along with previously unpublished notes and other illuminating documentary material about the novel and author.