The Dreamlife of Bridges

'The Dreamlife of Bridges' is the debut novel from Vancouver writer Robert Strandquist. Leo is a middle-aged, divorced handyman capable of mending almost anything outside of himself. The denial of his son's death, and his inability to deal with his own pain, has rendered his life fractured and untenable. June is a single mom struggling in the bottleneck of poverty, fighting to retain custody of her son. From their precarious vantage points they behold a world of human frailty and tenuous beauty, a place where the damaged victims of a cruel epoch might be made whole again. " 'The Dreamlife of Bridges' is a hard-edged, impressionistic odyssey through a Vancouver that doesn't appear on tourist flyers. The novel is suffused with pain and loss, yet offers a fleeting glance at redemption. Strandquist's characters, though often unlikable, reveal themselves gradually and convincingly."- Quill & Quire " ' The Dreamlife of Bridges' appeals as a ghostly, sociological nightmare." - Vancouver Review