Book Club Guide

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

by Thornton Wilder · 1927 · Religion & Spirituality

Key themes

Providence and chance — do the dead deserve their deaths?
Five lives examined to find a pattern — and the absence of pattern
Love in its different forms — and what each costs

About this book

The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927) tells the story of several unrelated people who happen to be on a bridge in Peru when it collapses, killing them. Philosophically, the book explores the problem of ev

Published in 1927, The Bridge of San Luis Rey won the Pulitzer Prize and has sold over three million copies. Wilder reportedly wrote the central question first and then the novel around it.

Discussion questions

The novel is structured around a question: was the bridge collapse an act of divine providence? How does Wilder develop this question — does he answer it?
The five victims whose lives Brother Juniper investigates are all connected by some form of love that has defined them. How does Wilder develop the idea that love is both a source of meaning and a source of suffering?
The Marquesa and Esteban are the two characters rendered most fully. How does Wilder develop each — and what does each contribute to the novel's argument?
The novel is very short — barely 120 pages. What does the compression achieve — and does the formal economy serve the philosophical weight?
The Bridge of San Luis Rey won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928 and is one of the bestselling American novels of the 20th century. What does it offer — and does it feel contemporary?