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Maylis de Kerangal:Naissance d’un pont (Birth of a Bridge)

Georges Diderot has been involved in civil engineering projects all over the world from Yakutia to Chengdu, from Baku to Lagos. It is what he does. He never stays in the same place for more than eighteen month and never travels for pleasure disgusted by exoticism, by its triviality – absolute powers of whites against the vengeful colonisation of amoebae, drugs and women docile for Western currency. He takes with him an expensive carbon fibre bike. a few books and CDs but no photos. He is described as an an engineer without a homeland, a mercenary of concrete and a patient clearer of tropical forests, an ex-convict, a gambler in rehab.

And then there is a brief announcement about the building of a bridge in Coca, a fictitious location in the United States. There is a mad scramble by civil engineering consortiums and, finally, the contract is awarded to an Indian/US/French consortium.
And now a wave of people pour into the area – different nationalities and different skills, arriving by various modes of transport, including on foot. There are even a few women, including the manager of concrete production. There are also the ancillaries – thick and sonorous stream mixing chicken roasters, dentists, psychologists, hairdressers, pizzaiolos, pawnbrokers, prostitutes, laminators of official documents, television and multimedia device repairmen, public letter writers, T-shirt vendors, makers of laurel lotion to treat calluses and cream to kill lice, priests, and cellphone agents. And, of course, our hero shows up.

It is only later in the book, that we learn of the history of Coca with the native population driven out by colonisers. There is an early small rustic bridge but also ferry services. There are waves of immigration. On what will be the far shore of the bridge there is a large squatter population, one of the many problems the builders face. There is a also a native population, quite a distance away but the construction of the bridge will will affect them. They have a champion . Jacob is an anthropologist and he has been living with them for part of the year for many years. When he hears of the bridge, he gets into a canoe and paddles down ti the bridge, determined to stop it. He planned to do it peacefully but that is not how it turned out when he confronts the project manager, Georges Diderot.

We follow the story of several of those involved, including Summer, the person in charge of the concrete who when her mother left her and her father, taking Summer’s brother with her, she is determined to be the son her father no longer has. Others have colourful stories, often involving their relationship with one or both of their parents.

These stories are invariably interesting as are the various issues involved. The bird lovers get involved as the nests of rare birds will be affected and they cause a lot of trouble. However the local mafia is also involved as they run the show when it comes to crossing the river and the bridge is not in their interests. and they turn to blackmail involving a bear and violence.

Inevitably there are labour issues, with strikes threatened, the inevitable accidents and a host of other issues related to the labour force.

I know nothing about building bridges as, I imagine is the case with most readers and I must admit that I found the whole process and complexity fascinating, including such things as the quantities of materials involved, the specialised workforce, the whole business of costing and much more. Diderot outlines some of his problems: insane deadlines, impossible specs, this shitty climate, and the fucking cost-effectiveness of this whole mess.

As mentioned a good part of the story is the human aspect and we follow the back stories not only of Diderot and, as mentioned, others such as Summer but also several other characters in the novel, who have their own problems, naturally including romantic/sexual relationships.

The story picks up at the end as there is pressure to meet deadlines coming from head office and, of course, problems occur.

There is some reference to the locals but relatively little. The whole process has been set up by the wildly ambitious local mayor, nicknamed the Boa (I’m going to free the city and put it on the world map) and he has tried to keep what is going on relatively hidden from the locals. There is some objection but not much. The Boa wants to make his city important. It is also not clear where the money is coming from to pay for this. If there is federal funding, a large increase in local taxes or massive borrowing, it is not mentioned. Despite these oversights I found this an excellent and unusual book. While there have been other novels featuring bridges )e.g. these I think this might well be up there as a highly worthwhile one.

Publishing history

First published in 2010 by Editions Verticales
First English translation in English in 2015 by Maclehose Press
Translated by Jessica Moore