"Because we all live in fear, most keep it quiet, everyone suffers from it, few speak of it, some transcend it."A Bridge with a View is a romantic novel set in Portugal that follows the emotional and physical journey of a somewhat confused
young Spanish boy who goes on a student exchange program.
In 2008, Paul Newman died; in 2009, Michael Jackson passed away. In between these two events, something far less significant was happening:
Lucas's student exchange program.
A Bridge with a View narrates, almost in diary form, the story of a young man who decides that spending a year abroad is the best use of his time. Since then, whenever Lucas tells his close ones what he plans to do, they almost always react with surprise. "Knowing you, you'll end up sleeping under a bridge," they predict. That says a lot about him. Without initiative but with a lot of trepidation, our protagonist will face the biggest challenge in his 21 years of existence: fending for himself (mostly) and living on his own.
In an environment where everyone he knows seems to have fled, yet he hasn't managed to escape, Lucas will attempt the perhaps somewhat ambitious mission of conceiving that exact moment when life truly begins.
Dive into A Bridge with a View and experience the most comprehensive Erasmus student exchange journey through a story that begins as a young adult self-discovery book about and evolves into a romantic novel in its second half with some moments of eroticism becoming an asian woman white man romance book. Told in the first person, this coming-of-age tale details and entertainingly unfolds the intricacies of this scholarship, the stages some students go through, and what it means for most who have applied for it and lived in another country, touching on some aspects of travel narratives.
However, unlike other books focused on this theme, A Bridge with a View finds more human and personal nooks thanks to the protagonist's voice, the need for empathy, and the search for understanding among people to coexist harmoniously. Each experience is different, although much of what is felt is common. Not everyone faces the exaltation of friendship in the same way, nor feels the same about loss when they believe it is total versus when it is indefinite or temporary, even though the closest relationships also die kilometers away.
A Bridge with a View is a novel that takes place in Coimbra (Portugal) and stands out by transporting us to a university environment. A exchange student book filled with people from different origins and cultures who do not know each other, where interaction is always necessary, with the Erasmus scholarship driving the story, but not its center (like other books about living abroad).
Insecurities, prejudices, clichés, expectations, friendship, behaviors in groups and alone, or love are questioned through the protagonist's reflections and his viewpoint, full of mistakes, some successes, and a multitude of events and concerns. Do we have a role assigned in our relationships, friendships, and romantic relationships? Are all these contradictions what truly define us?
The idea of developing this erotic romance novel around the 2008/2009 academic year comes from it being, for many, the period marking the start of new ways of communicating and a new digital era. Witnessing the last days of MSN Messenger, just before the arrival of WhatsApp and the proliferation of smartphones, which were not yet widespread. Spotify appeared for the first time, Skype was around but rarely used, and Google Chrome was launched, back when all our information couldn't yet fit on our phones and the financial crisis began.
