THE INVISIBLE BRIDGE

The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer - This soaring novel follows the life of Andras Levi, a Hungarian Jew who by luck, moves to Paris to study architecture. It's 1937, and Andras is changed by his experiences in Paris. With the Germans moving around Europe, Andras ends up back in Hungary, where his war experiences continue to change and shape his existence in ways he never would have imagined. Julie Orringer writes as if she were telling you a story. This is the history of a man and the family and friends who accompany him as he struggles to survive on his life's journey. It's an amazing way to learn about Hungary and it's history during World War II. I loved this book.
At the end of the book, there is a poem about surviving, or being the one who survives:

Any Case

It could have happened.
It had to happen.
It happened earlier. Later.
Closer. Farther away.
It happened, but not to you.

You survived because you were first.
You survived because you were last.
Because alone. Because the others.
Because on the left. Because on the right.
Because it was raining. Because it was sunny.
Because a shadow fell.

Luckily there was a forest.
Luckily there were no trees
Luckily a rail, a hood, a beam, a brake,
a frame, a turn, an inch, a second.
Luckily a straw was floating on the water.

Thanks to, thus, in spite of, and yet.
What would have happened if a hand, a leg,
One step, a hair away?

So you are here? Straight from that moment still suspended?
The net's mesh was tight, but you? through the mesh?
I can't stop wondering at it, can't be silent enough.
Listen,
How quickly your heart is beating in me.

-Wislawa Szymborska
translated from the Polish by Grazyna Drabik and Sharon Olds.