Listen free for 30 days
-
Bridge of Clay
- Narrated by: Markus Zusak
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Buy Now for £19.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
- By: Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Narrated by: Alma Cuervo, Julia Whelan, Robin Miles
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now? Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.
-
-
Loved
- By MISS C MILLER on 13-11-21
-
The Book Thief
- By: Markus Zusak
- Narrated by: Allan Corduner
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When nine-year-old Liesel arrives outside the boxlike house of her new foster parents at 33 Himmel Street, she refuses to get out of the car. Liesel has been separated from her parents, "Kommunists", forever, and at the burial of her little brother, she steals a gravedigger's instruction manual, which she can't read. It is the beginning of her illustrious career.
-
-
A great listen
- By Karen on 17-05-07
-
Fighting Ruben Wolfe
- By: Markus Zusak
- Narrated by: Stig Wemyss
- Length: 3 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
I say, 'Don't lose your heart, Rube.' And very clearly, without moving, my brother answers me. He says, 'I'm not tryin' to lose it, Cam. I'm tryin' to find it.' The Wolfe brothers know how to fight. They've been fighting all their lives. Now there's something more at stake than just winning. A powerful, poignant novel from the author of the international bestseller, The Book Thief.
-
The Hunger Trace
- By: Edward Hogan
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the sudden death of David Bryant, the charismatic owner of a Derbyshire parkland, three people are left to mourn him in very different ways. Maggie, David's young widow; Louisa, who has harboured an infatuation with David since her youth; and Christopher, David'' eccentric teenage son from an earlier marriage. In the aftermath of disaster, they will each face decisions which will define them...
-
The Invention of Wings
- By: Sue Monk Kidd
- Narrated by: Jenna Lamia, Adepero Oduye
- Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sarah Grimké is the middle daughter. The one her mother calls difficult and her father calls remarkable. On Sarah's eleventh birthday, Hetty 'Handful' Grimke is taken from the slave quarters she shares with her mother, wrapped in lavender ribbons, and presented to Sarah as a gift.
-
-
Wonderful listen
- By s w on 06-05-15
-
Where the Crawdads Sing
- By: Delia Owens
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For years, rumors of the 'Marsh Girl' have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life - until the unthinkable happens.
-
-
Oh my word...
- By Private on 09-05-20
-
Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
- By: Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Narrated by: Alma Cuervo, Julia Whelan, Robin Miles
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now? Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.
-
-
Loved
- By MISS C MILLER on 13-11-21
-
The Book Thief
- By: Markus Zusak
- Narrated by: Allan Corduner
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When nine-year-old Liesel arrives outside the boxlike house of her new foster parents at 33 Himmel Street, she refuses to get out of the car. Liesel has been separated from her parents, "Kommunists", forever, and at the burial of her little brother, she steals a gravedigger's instruction manual, which she can't read. It is the beginning of her illustrious career.
-
-
A great listen
- By Karen on 17-05-07
-
Fighting Ruben Wolfe
- By: Markus Zusak
- Narrated by: Stig Wemyss
- Length: 3 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
I say, 'Don't lose your heart, Rube.' And very clearly, without moving, my brother answers me. He says, 'I'm not tryin' to lose it, Cam. I'm tryin' to find it.' The Wolfe brothers know how to fight. They've been fighting all their lives. Now there's something more at stake than just winning. A powerful, poignant novel from the author of the international bestseller, The Book Thief.
-
The Hunger Trace
- By: Edward Hogan
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the sudden death of David Bryant, the charismatic owner of a Derbyshire parkland, three people are left to mourn him in very different ways. Maggie, David's young widow; Louisa, who has harboured an infatuation with David since her youth; and Christopher, David'' eccentric teenage son from an earlier marriage. In the aftermath of disaster, they will each face decisions which will define them...
-
The Invention of Wings
- By: Sue Monk Kidd
- Narrated by: Jenna Lamia, Adepero Oduye
- Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sarah Grimké is the middle daughter. The one her mother calls difficult and her father calls remarkable. On Sarah's eleventh birthday, Hetty 'Handful' Grimke is taken from the slave quarters she shares with her mother, wrapped in lavender ribbons, and presented to Sarah as a gift.
-
-
Wonderful listen
- By s w on 06-05-15
-
Where the Crawdads Sing
- By: Delia Owens
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For years, rumors of the 'Marsh Girl' have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life - until the unthinkable happens.
-
-
Oh my word...
- By Private on 09-05-20
-
A Terrible Kindness
- By: Jo Browning Wroe
- Narrated by: David Dawson
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tonight 19-year-old William Lavery is dressed for success, his first black-tie do. It's the Midlands Chapter of the Institute of Embalmers Ladies' Night Dinner Dance, and William is taking Gloria in her sequined evening gown. He can barely believe his luck. But as the guests sip their drinks and smoke their post-dinner cigarettes, a telegram delivers news of a tragedy. An event so terrible it will shake the nation. It is October 1966, and a landslide at a coal mine has buried a school: Aberfan.
-
-
A terrible kindness
- By Tracy morgan on 20-01-22
-
Hamnet
- Winner of The Women's Prize for Fiction 2020 - the No. 1 Bestseller
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Daisy Donovan
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home? Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London. Neither parent knows that one of the children will not survive the week.
-
-
Narrator fights writing and wins (sadly)
- By Leaf Green on 20-07-20
-
The Escape Artist
- The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World
- By: Jonathan Freedland
- Narrated by: Jonathan Freedland
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In April 1944 a teenager named Rudolf Vrba was planning a daring and unprecedented escape from Auschwitz. After hiding in a pile of timber planks for three days while 3,000 SS men and their bloodhounds searched for him, Vrba and his fellow escapee Fred Wetzler would eventually cross Nazi-occupied Poland on foot, as penniless fugitives. Their mission: to tell the world the truth of the Final Solution.
-
-
Extraordinary and imperative to listen to
- By Anonymous User on 22-06-22
-
Shuggie Bain
- By: Douglas Stuart
- Narrated by: Angus King
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1981. Glasgow is dying and good families must grift to survive. Agnes Bain has always expected more from life. She dreams of greater things: a house with its own front door and a life bought and paid for outright (like her perfect, but false, teeth). But Agnes is abandoned by her philandering husband, and soon she and her three children find themselves trapped in a decimated mining town. As she descends deeper into drink, the children try their best to save her, yet one by one they must abandon her to save themselves. It is her son Shuggie who holds out hope the longest.
-
-
Utter respect
- By KMV on 02-09-20
-
Out of the Corner
- A Memoir
- By: Jennifer Grey
- Narrated by: Jennifer Grey
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this beautiful, close-to-the bone account, Jennifer Grey takes listeners on a vivid tour of the experiences that have shaped her, from her childhood as the daughter of Broadway and film legend Joel Grey, to the surprise hit with Patrick Swayze that made her America’s sweetheart, to her inspiring season eleven win on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars.
-
-
Nobody puts Baby in a corner!
- By Lady Lavender on 20-05-22
-
The Glass Hotel
- By: Emily St. John Mandel
- Narrated by: Dylan Moore
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Glass Hotel begins at the end, with a fall: a woman plummeting from the deck of a cargo ship, her body quickly swallowed by the sea. It is a death that happens between continents, outside of jurisdictions: a death that will likely go unremarked and unsolved. Years earlier a massive Ponzi scheme implodes in New York, taking with it the finances, hopes, and lives, of hundreds of people. The Glass Hotel is a novel about the interconnected lives tangled up in two very different tragedies.
-
-
Great Story but I wish the narrator didn’t attempt accents
- By Amazon Customer on 19-05-20
-
Beach Music
- A Novel
- By: Pat Conroy
- Narrated by: Peter MacNicol
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the American South to the ancient ruins of Rome, and from the horrors of the Holocaust to the lingering trauma of Vietnam, Beach Music sings with life's pain and glory. Jack McCall, an American expatriate in Rome with his young daughter, is trying to find some peace after his wife's suicide. But when his sister-in-law begs him to return home, he finds himself drawn into a painful, intimate search for the one haunting secret in his family's past that can heal his anguished heart.
-
Before the Coffee Gets Cold
- By: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
- Narrated by: Arina Ii
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer's, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.
-
-
Just No
- By M. Atkinson on 26-09-19
-
Miss Benson's Beetle
- By: Rachel Joyce
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1950. In a devastating moment of clarity, Margery Benson abandons her dead-end job and advertises for an assistant to accompany her on an expedition. She is going to travel to the other side of the world to search for a beetle that may or may not exist. Enid Pretty, in her unlikely pink travel suit, is not the companion Margery had in mind. And yet together they will be drawn into an adventure that will exceed every expectation. They will risk everything, break all the rules and, at the top of a red mountain, discover their best selves.
-
-
Finding the way
- By Rachel Redford on 21-08-20
-
A Thousand Splendid Suns
- By: Khaled Hosseini
- Narrated by: Atossa Leoni
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss, and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them, in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul, they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation.
-
-
Recommended - but not much fun
- By Mirium on 06-02-08
-
A Town Called Solace
- By: Mary Lawson
- Narrated by: Maggie Huculak, Tajja Isen, Ian Lake
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Clara's sister is missing. Angry, rebellious Rose had a row with their mother, stormed out of the house and simply disappeared. Eight-year-old Clara, isolated by her distraught parents' efforts to protect her from the truth, is grief-stricken and bewildered. Liam Kane, newly divorced, newly unemployed, newly arrived in this small northern town, moves into the house next door, a house left to him by an old woman he can barely remember and within hours gets a visit from the police. It seems he's suspected of a crime.
-
-
Brilliantly real!
- By Rachel Redford on 27-04-21
-
When All Is Said
- The Number One Irish Bestseller by the author of Listening Still
- By: Anne Griffin
- Narrated by: Niall Buggy
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If you had to pick five people to sum up your life, who would they be? If you were to raise a glass to each of them, what would you say? And what would you learn about yourself, when all is said and done? This is the story of Maurice Hannigan, an Irish farmer. Over the course of a Saturday night in June, he orders five drinks at the Rainsford House Hotel, and with each he toasts a key person from his life: his adored older brother; his troubled sister-in-law; his daughter of 15 minutes; his son far off in America; and his late, much missed wife.
-
-
A Life in Five Chapters
- By C. P. McGregor on 05-02-19
Summary
Random House presents the audiobook edition of Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak.
From the internationally acclaimed, prize-winning, best-selling author of The Book Thief, here is a story told backwards and inside out.
The five Dunbar brothers are living - fighting, dreaming, loving - in the perfect squalor of a house without grownups. Today, the father who abandoned them is about to walk back in.
But why has he returned, and who have the boys become since he left?
At the helm is Matthew, cynical, poetic; Rory, forever truanting; Henry, the money-spinner; and young Tommy, the pet collector who has colonised the house with dysfunctional pets, including Achilles the mule and Rosy the border collie.
And then there’s Clay, the quiet one, his whole young life haunted by an unspeakable act.
From the tale of their grandfather, whose passion for the ancient Greeks still colours their lives, to the mother and father who met over a mislaid piano, to the present day, where five sons dwell in a house with no rules, Bridge of Clay is an epic portrait of a ramshackle family and the unburying of one boy’s tragic secret.
Critic reviews
Praise for The Book Thief: "Brilliant and hugely ambitious." (New York Times)
"A novel of breathtaking scope." (The Guardian)
More from the same
Narrator
What listeners say about Bridge of Clay
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Aisling
- 26-12-18
Stick with this one
I almost gave up on this book. I found the story so bleak and violent in the first couple of chapters. I'm so glad I decided to preserve. I found the narration a bit too slow so I turned it to 1.4, which worked well. As the story unfolded I fell in love with the characters, even the mule. a wonderful story, beautifully told
32 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Margot
- 21-11-18
I wish I loved it
I absolutely loved the book thief so I tried so many times with this book but I just couldn’t get into it. It’s beautifully written but I couldn’t cope with the narration. I will try again by reading the book instead.
28 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Trotpot
- 30-11-18
Beautiful book - beautifully written and narrated
I was a little nervous of the author narration as I have had a few dodgy listens when narrated by author. However in this case, the author narration brought to life the poetry in the writing. At times I rewound to relisten to some parts they were so beautiful
The story is cleverly plotted across time frames and characters, and drawn together , going in surprising directions at times
Every character is richly described and so easy to bond with - I loved them all and didn’t want story to end
One of my best listens this year
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gerard
- 16-04-19
Slow burner
Took me so long to get into this book, and with Markus reading it, but it was worth staying with. He'd put his heart and soul into this family story, and you grow to love the characters.
Preferred the Book Thief, but still a must read (listen)..
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- sophiecook
- 06-11-18
I tried...
I really wanted to love this book. I knew it was going to be nothing like the Book Thief, I'd even heard Markus Zusak chat about it on Radio 4. I couldn't get beyond the first hour or two, I tried it again and the same thing happened. I just couldn't get the story and I found his voice quite tricky to listen too, quite soporific and grating at the same time. I know it's meant to be brilliant and I think it's my fault and maybe in a few months I'll try again...
17 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jacqueline W.
- 20-03-19
Markus Zusak as his best
Every bit as good as The Book Thief. Beautifully written and heartbreakingly sad.
This is not a fast page turner, or a pacy thriller. It is a story of love, of loss, of family and relationships. Markus narrates his story as it's meant to be told, with tenderness, emotion and a gentle pace. This is a book that Is definitely in my top 10.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sarah
- 14-03-19
Loved every minute!
I loved everything about this book. Beautifully written and read. Deeply sad yet wonderfully uplifting. Full of humour and love... Mostly love. Different in so many ways to other books I have listened to, so refreshing. I never wanted it to end
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lucy Skinner
- 11-03-19
A heart-warming book!
It took me a while to get used to the narration by Zusak but once I did, I couldn’t stop listening. At times hilarious, moving and beautifully poetic. Zusak knows how to write, very well, that’s for sure, and how to move me to tears! 5 brothers, you want to get to know them all...
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lucy
- 09-04-19
Bridge of clay
I loved this story, so different, very touching and beautifully written and narrated by the author
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lynn
- 18-10-18
Pure pleasure.
Hooked from first to last. Wonderful, heartbreaking,beautiful. I loved The Book Thief now I simply love this author.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Gavin
- 14-11-19
And so it was a beautiful story...
This is a story that starts before the beginning and pulls you into the lives of the 5 Dunbar Boys, by the end you will feel like you know each one of them personally. The murderer, The Mule, the old TW and the boy, the beautiful boy, Clay Dunbar. Praise for Markus Zusak, what an accomplishment. I devoured every poetic word you have written. This is a masterpiece, I can highly recommend and will definitely be reading again.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Rita
- 01-12-18
David - Michelangelo
It took me a while to get excited about the book. I struggle in the beginning to keep track of the different time periods even figuring out the character was a mystery. My view of this changed completely when I finished the book it is as if Zusak wrote a book the way a artist would sculpt something out of stone or marble. There where abstract glimpses into a masterpiece that would only be revealed towards the end.
If you love art you will love every minute of this masterpiece.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 16-06-19
Blasphemy
I could not listen to all the blasphemy. It spoils the story. Really sorry, was really looking forward to the book