Across the Bridge
by Heinrich Boll
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See Also
- Heinrich Böll (Cyclopedia of World Authors, Fourth Revised Edition)
- Heinrich Böll (Dictionary of World Biography: The 20th Century)
- Heinrich Böll (Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Fourth Edition)
- Heinrich Böll (Critical Survey of Short Fiction, Second Revised Edition)
- Theory of Short Fiction (Critical Survey of Short Fiction, Second Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Heinrich Boll
- First Published: 1950
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: After World War II
- Setting: Germany
- Genres: Social realism, Short fiction
- Subjects: Memory, Traveling or travelers, 1940's, World War II, Emotions, Trains, Nazism or Nazis, Germany or German people, Houses, mansions, or manors, Bridges
- Locales: Europe, Germany
The Story
As the narrator Grabowski rides across the railway bridge that was part of his regular three-day-a-week routine ten years before the war, he recalls his earlier life. At that time he worked as a messenger for the Reich Gun Dog and Retriever Association. He had little education, knew nothing about dogs, and had only to transport urgent correspondence, money, and a large manila folder of “Pending Cases” between the Königstadt head office and the Gründerheim branch office.
The trip required crossing the Rhine River at one of its widest points. Although he...
(The entire page is 1559 words.)
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