A Bridge Across the Ocean

by Susan Meissner
Scott County Library paperback 348 pages
genre: Historical fiction

This book surprised me a bit, since ghosts and people who can communicate with ghosts are the focus. Usually Meissner's books are a bit more inspiring. She did the usual multiple characters / different eras thing . . . and even though they all come together, it's a bit disconcerting to have to keep track of the characters and their storylines.

page 162 - Everett has Simone find a French Bible so he can learn the language (and he can teach Simone English from his Bible) - love this scene!

page 247 - Simone is reliving her nightmare of being raped by the Gestapo officer and her horror at having shot him to death. "There had been a time when the man with the gold tooth had been a little boy who loved playing with his dog and fishing with his grandfather and eating ice cream on hot summer days. Back then he didn't have a gold tooth, or the uniform, or the desire to kill and steal and destroy. He had been like her. Young and curious and hopeful. Something had happened to that little boy." Sometimes I need to think about who people really are and how they became that way. . . including myself.

page 262 - When Brette is having the conversation with her mother about choosing to get pregnant, even knowing that the Sight might be passed to a girl, her mom's response is perfect. "But we don't ever get to know those kinds of things about our unborn children, Brette. That's the beauty and burden of having a child. You don't pick and choose the one you think you want, you are handed the one God gives you."

page 324 - "You can't wish for control; you can only learn to play your part in a world where nothing is truly certain."

page 345 - Annaliese's letter to Brette - "Life will send us across a bridge we did not want to cross, but when we finally open our eyes on the other side, we see that there had been nothing to fear after all."

I'm looking forward to book club tonight to discuss this!