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The Elephant on Karlův Bridge
Set in Prague and narrated with great panache by the 600-year-old Charles Bridge, this novel begins with an elephant named Sál escaping the Prague Zoo. As the elephant moves through the beautiful Czech city, the lives of the men and women she meets are altered by the encounter. Each character is at a crossroads, and desperately seeking the wisdom they need to wrestle with profound questions—how to live, how to love, who to love, how to heal. And the elephant herself is haunted, as memories of her long-ago capture in Africa resurface.
Sál carries the narrative from one point of view to another: Vasha, a writer and night watchman at the zoo, and his wife Marta, a psychotherapist, confront the question of whether to have a child; Šárka, Marta’s patient and a dancer at the end of her career, is visited by a charming and often abrasive manifestation of the long-dead ballerina Anna Pavlova; Joseph, a clown and bouffon, performs on the Karlův Bridge itself, and he is about to be struck down (literally and figuratively) by a new love…
Through it all, Sál steals the show, wandering the streets in search of water and food, bearing her own share of sadness and painful memories as she struggles to find her way out of her bewildering predicament. Though she, like the humans she encounters, is free now to make her own choices, she is also displaced and lost.
Thomas Trofimuk’s novel masterfully convinces us to accept all the wonders contained in it: that a bridge can tell a story, that art is integral to our survival, that an elephant can scatter sudden flashes of insight in her wake, that there is no separation between the grief of elephants and the grief of humans.
Sál carries the narrative from one point of view to another: Vasha, a writer and night watchman at the zoo, and his wife Marta, a psychotherapist, confront the question of whether to have a child; Šárka, Marta’s patient and a dancer at the end of her career, is visited by a charming and often abrasive manifestation of the long-dead ballerina Anna Pavlova; Joseph, a clown and bouffon, performs on the Karlův Bridge itself, and he is about to be struck down (literally and figuratively) by a new love…
Through it all, Sál steals the show, wandering the streets in search of water and food, bearing her own share of sadness and painful memories as she struggles to find her way out of her bewildering predicament. Though she, like the humans she encounters, is free now to make her own choices, she is also displaced and lost.
Thomas Trofimuk’s novel masterfully convinces us to accept all the wonders contained in it: that a bridge can tell a story, that art is integral to our survival, that an elephant can scatter sudden flashes of insight in her wake, that there is no separation between the grief of elephants and the grief of humans.
352 pages, Paperback
First published August 15, 2022
About the author
Thomas Trofimuk
7 books48 followers• As a writer, he’s published poetry, short-fiction, and novels.
• His first novel, The 52nd Poem, explores the remnants of a love affair as a man sends a poem a week to his lover over the period of a year. The book went on to win a few awards including the 2003 Alberta Novel of the Year and the City of Edmonton Book Prize.
• A second novel, Doubting Yourself to the Bone, is set in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and has received high praise from critics – including being named as one of the top 100 must read books for 2006 by the Globe & Mail.
• In 2009, Thomas’ third novel, Waiting for Columbus, burst onto the international stage, with a Canadian (McClelland & Stewart) and US (Knopf-Doubleday) release. In 2010, the book was released in the UK (Picador), and was published in Serbia, Brazil, Poland, China, and Quebec. The book was also released as an audio book. Waiting for Columbus won the City of Edmonton Book Prize, was a nominee for the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, it was a Richard and Judy Book Club (UK) pick for fall 2010 and was picked as one of Richard and Judy’s 100 Books of the decade.
• Waiting for Columbus has been optioned for film. Rumours are swirling right now about the possibility of Nicholas Cage playing “Columbus” in the movie.
• This is All a Lie, his fourth (published) novel, gathered stellar reviews across Canada, including a starred review in Quill & Quire, and being named as a top 100 book of 2017 in the National Post.
• Trofimuk is a founding father of Edmonton’s Raving Poets movement, which was an open-stage poetry event held in a bar, with the poets backed up by the Raving Poets Band. He played piano (badly but with gusto) in the Raving Poets band.
• He is a frequent teacher at YouthWrite (http://www.youthwrite.com/), a camp for kids who love to write, and he sits on the board of the YouthWrite Society Canada.
• He also irregularly blogs on his website: “Writer, Gardener, Failed Buddhist.” (www.thomastrofimuk.com)
• Trofimuk has recently taken up kayaking. He loves maps, and charts. He really likes new sheets. He’s a huge fan of single malt whisky. He has been known to smoke cigars. If you offer him wine, he’ll very likely accept.
• He was a “dance dad,” which means he knows more about dance than he ever thought he’d know, and he did a lot of driving back and forth from Shelly’s Dance Studio. He has grown to love dance, and in fact, there’s a dancer in the latest novel, called The Elephant on Karlův Bridge.
• The Elephant on Karlův Bridge, set in Prague, Czech Republic, in which a five-ton African elephant is one of the main characters, is slated for an August 15, 2022 release.
Here's a short and sweet version:
Thomas Trofimuk is a writer of poetry and fiction. He’s published in literary magazines across the country, and on CBC radio. His first novel, The 52nd Poem won the George Bugnet Novel of the Year Award and the City of Edmonton Book Prize at the 2003 Alberta Book Awards. His second novel, the critically acclaimed Doubting Yourself to the Bone, was named as one of the Globe and Mail’s top 100 must-read books for 2006. His third book, Waiting for Columbus, was released in August 2009 in the US, Canada, the UK, Serbia, Poland, Brazil, China and Quebec. Waiting for Columbus won the City of Edmonton Book Prize, was a nominee for the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, it was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick for fall 2010 and was picked as one of Richard and Judy’s 100 Books of the decade. A fourth novel, This is All a Lie was released in 2017 to critical acclaim. The Elephant on Karlův Bridge is set to be released Aug, 2022. Thomas writes on a regular basis for his own website; “writer, gardener, failed Buddhist” at www.thomastrofimuk.com. He lives (and writes) in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
• His first novel, The 52nd Poem, explores the remnants of a love affair as a man sends a poem a week to his lover over the period of a year. The book went on to win a few awards including the 2003 Alberta Novel of the Year and the City of Edmonton Book Prize.
• A second novel, Doubting Yourself to the Bone, is set in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and has received high praise from critics – including being named as one of the top 100 must read books for 2006 by the Globe & Mail.
• In 2009, Thomas’ third novel, Waiting for Columbus, burst onto the international stage, with a Canadian (McClelland & Stewart) and US (Knopf-Doubleday) release. In 2010, the book was released in the UK (Picador), and was published in Serbia, Brazil, Poland, China, and Quebec. The book was also released as an audio book. Waiting for Columbus won the City of Edmonton Book Prize, was a nominee for the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, it was a Richard and Judy Book Club (UK) pick for fall 2010 and was picked as one of Richard and Judy’s 100 Books of the decade.
• Waiting for Columbus has been optioned for film. Rumours are swirling right now about the possibility of Nicholas Cage playing “Columbus” in the movie.
• This is All a Lie, his fourth (published) novel, gathered stellar reviews across Canada, including a starred review in Quill & Quire, and being named as a top 100 book of 2017 in the National Post.
• Trofimuk is a founding father of Edmonton’s Raving Poets movement, which was an open-stage poetry event held in a bar, with the poets backed up by the Raving Poets Band. He played piano (badly but with gusto) in the Raving Poets band.
• He is a frequent teacher at YouthWrite (http://www.youthwrite.com/), a camp for kids who love to write, and he sits on the board of the YouthWrite Society Canada.
• He also irregularly blogs on his website: “Writer, Gardener, Failed Buddhist.” (www.thomastrofimuk.com)
• Trofimuk has recently taken up kayaking. He loves maps, and charts. He really likes new sheets. He’s a huge fan of single malt whisky. He has been known to smoke cigars. If you offer him wine, he’ll very likely accept.
• He was a “dance dad,” which means he knows more about dance than he ever thought he’d know, and he did a lot of driving back and forth from Shelly’s Dance Studio. He has grown to love dance, and in fact, there’s a dancer in the latest novel, called The Elephant on Karlův Bridge.
• The Elephant on Karlův Bridge, set in Prague, Czech Republic, in which a five-ton African elephant is one of the main characters, is slated for an August 15, 2022 release.
Here's a short and sweet version:
Thomas Trofimuk is a writer of poetry and fiction. He’s published in literary magazines across the country, and on CBC radio. His first novel, The 52nd Poem won the George Bugnet Novel of the Year Award and the City of Edmonton Book Prize at the 2003 Alberta Book Awards. His second novel, the critically acclaimed Doubting Yourself to the Bone, was named as one of the Globe and Mail’s top 100 must-read books for 2006. His third book, Waiting for Columbus, was released in August 2009 in the US, Canada, the UK, Serbia, Poland, Brazil, China and Quebec. Waiting for Columbus won the City of Edmonton Book Prize, was a nominee for the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, it was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick for fall 2010 and was picked as one of Richard and Judy’s 100 Books of the decade. A fourth novel, This is All a Lie was released in 2017 to critical acclaim. The Elephant on Karlův Bridge is set to be released Aug, 2022. Thomas writes on a regular basis for his own website; “writer, gardener, failed Buddhist” at www.thomastrofimuk.com. He lives (and writes) in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
March 16, 2023
I'd never heard of this book—from a Canadian author—until I came upon it recently, and I'm ever-so grateful that I did. It's such an unusual novel—but wonderfully so! I could ponder over a review, but I really can't imagine anything will come to me because I think this book may be nearly impossible to explain. It was funny but serious and silly but profound. There were many disparate characters who quite suddenly were connected. And impossible puzzles somehow solved themselves. It was such a joyous ride! The first ~40%, though, kept me puzzling over it as I read—what exactly is happening and where is this leading me? And then... it simply began to S-O-A-R-!🦅🕊 And from that point on, I believe my face could only alternate between two simple expressions: 😊 and 😮
One unthinkable moment on the African savannah, several years later caused an elephant to appear on Prague’s Karlův Bridge, touching many who desperately needed a second chance at life and love. Momentous... Merciful... Magnificent.
5 simply-unforgettable stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
One unthinkable moment on the African savannah, several years later caused an elephant to appear on Prague’s Karlův Bridge, touching many who desperately needed a second chance at life and love. Momentous... Merciful... Magnificent.
5 simply-unforgettable stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
September 17, 2023
I bought and read this book solely on my friend Jody's glowing review. There were sections and people that worked really well for me, but unfortunately many that did not. The idea that a bridge in Prague and an escaped elephant from the Zoo are narrators, along with many others, takes a bit of a stretch. Some stories/narratives work really well, some not at all. I found the last third to not work for me at all after a promising start.
I did learn a lot and enjoyed portions of the story, but overall far too 'all over the place' and disjointed for me. Thanks heaps for the recommendation though Jodi, just did not work for me in the end.
I did learn a lot and enjoyed portions of the story, but overall far too 'all over the place' and disjointed for me. Thanks heaps for the recommendation though Jodi, just did not work for me in the end.
August 26, 2022
Compelling! Captivating! Riveting! I don't have enough words to describe the incredible new book The Elephant on Karluv Bridge by Thomas Trofimuk. I was hooked from page one and couldn't put the book down. Mr. Trofmuk is a masterful storyteller who weaved a stunning arary characters with artful writing and poignant stories of love and loss. A must read!
September 22, 2022
This book is gorgeous. The tone is serene, which really surprised me given that the plot features an escaped elephant! It is poetic and dreamy and full of longing, pain and passion. Reading it is like being whispered the secrets of the strangers I pass on the streets every day. The book feels like a love affair, and as a reader I was swept away into the romance. It was a pleasure to read.
I loved spending time with his prose and his characters, and in his beautiful city of Prague.
I HIGHLY recommend!
January 26, 2023
A beautiful, heart-rending, twining tale.
August 23, 2023
This is an interesting book set in Prague, where the Charles bridge is the narrator. There are many interesting characters and intersections in their lives. This makes for an engaging read.
December 14, 2022
It took me a few sections to get into the story but it ended up being quite good. The Elephant on the bridge (Sal) escapes from the Prague Zoo and is central to every section of the novel. She ties into every character featured in the novel, each character introduced has some sort of history with her (my fav section features ex-military/Bodyguard Tomas and his history with Sal). Its kind of amazing how the author did this. There were a few sections that ran a bit long for me but for the most part, I quite enjoyed this book. I also love how the author gave really interesting and intriguing information about Elephants. The only part I was left stumped by was the end. The author sort of left it up in the air as to what happens with Sal. I would have liked a happy ending for her and I can't tell in the last pages if it is a good ending for her. I would recommend this book to others.
July 27, 2023
Holy cannoli - what did I just finish devouring?!! This amazing fiction read will be on my Top Three Books of 2023 list.
Considering how much I loved The Elephant on Karlův Bridge, I am horrified to admit that I was skeptical at first. The premise seemed ridiculous. The novel is narrated by a bridge in Prague - what the heck? The story centres around an elephant named Sál that escapes from the Prague Zoo, detailing the people she encounters as she navigates her freedom. How can that be entertaining? But I jumped in as I have been a huge Trofimuk fan since 2002 when I read the award-winning The 52nd Poem, his first published novel.
My life changed the moment I cracked The Elephant on Karlův Bridge open. That sounds dramatic but it’s true. This book will linger long in my consciousness. Under Trofimuk’s expert hand, the five-ton elephant took on human characteristics. Crazy, I know! Another bonus is the joy of being submerged into the beautiful and alive city of Prague; if readers close their eyes and focus, they can feel like they are actually there.
As enthralling as Sál and the bridge are, the humans we meet along the way are enchanting as well. They come from diverse backgrounds and their age range spans decades, leading to a varied group of people. All of them had fascinating stories to share but my personal favourite was Šárka. I’ve always been captivated by people whose lives have a singular focus; how they feel and what they do once that one mission is accomplished intrigues me. (Like an Olympic athlete or the lady in Zero Dark Thirty whose sole goal for years was to track down Osama Bin Laden.) Šárka was living that reality as the end of her career as a dancer loomed close. As we know, everyone has a story - The Elephant on Karlův Bridge drilled that home in the best possible way.
Another perk of this book is that I learned a lot about elephants that I previously had no idea about. (For example, male elephants go through a period of sexual madness called musth.) I laughed out loud at one of Trofimuk’s acknowledgements: “No real elephants were harmed, or abused, or insulted in the making of this book. Elephants were, however, visited.”
If you are a history buff, make sure you read the End Notes at the back of the book after the acknowledgements. You’ll find some true explanations about some of the figures, places, and things mentioned in the story - they are worth the read.
Run - don’t walk - to pick up a copy of The Elephant on Karlův Bridge the next time you are looking for a book that you cannot put down. I promise you won’t regret it!
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
Considering how much I loved The Elephant on Karlův Bridge, I am horrified to admit that I was skeptical at first. The premise seemed ridiculous. The novel is narrated by a bridge in Prague - what the heck? The story centres around an elephant named Sál that escapes from the Prague Zoo, detailing the people she encounters as she navigates her freedom. How can that be entertaining? But I jumped in as I have been a huge Trofimuk fan since 2002 when I read the award-winning The 52nd Poem, his first published novel.
My life changed the moment I cracked The Elephant on Karlův Bridge open. That sounds dramatic but it’s true. This book will linger long in my consciousness. Under Trofimuk’s expert hand, the five-ton elephant took on human characteristics. Crazy, I know! Another bonus is the joy of being submerged into the beautiful and alive city of Prague; if readers close their eyes and focus, they can feel like they are actually there.
As enthralling as Sál and the bridge are, the humans we meet along the way are enchanting as well. They come from diverse backgrounds and their age range spans decades, leading to a varied group of people. All of them had fascinating stories to share but my personal favourite was Šárka. I’ve always been captivated by people whose lives have a singular focus; how they feel and what they do once that one mission is accomplished intrigues me. (Like an Olympic athlete or the lady in Zero Dark Thirty whose sole goal for years was to track down Osama Bin Laden.) Šárka was living that reality as the end of her career as a dancer loomed close. As we know, everyone has a story - The Elephant on Karlův Bridge drilled that home in the best possible way.
Another perk of this book is that I learned a lot about elephants that I previously had no idea about. (For example, male elephants go through a period of sexual madness called musth.) I laughed out loud at one of Trofimuk’s acknowledgements: “No real elephants were harmed, or abused, or insulted in the making of this book. Elephants were, however, visited.”
If you are a history buff, make sure you read the End Notes at the back of the book after the acknowledgements. You’ll find some true explanations about some of the figures, places, and things mentioned in the story - they are worth the read.
Run - don’t walk - to pick up a copy of The Elephant on Karlův Bridge the next time you are looking for a book that you cannot put down. I promise you won’t regret it!
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
January 9, 2024
Audio. I selected this book simply because it was available on Libby the day I needed a book. So glad I did!! The narrator is amazing and brought this beautifully written, thought provoking story to life. I gave it 5 stars, but my one small complaint is that a some of the story lines seem incomplete. Because it is so beautifully written, (yes, I repeat myself!), I wanted more! But maybe because Sal (the elephant) and the Bridge are the main characters and they couldn't the answers that is just the way it's meant to be. A great read and I will look for more by this author.
May 22, 2023
The narrator is the Karlüv Bridge (the Charles Bridge) in Prague. The bridge has a very long memory. The stories bob and weave around the elephant's unscheduled nocturnal visit to the bridge. Connections between the characters draw the stories together in the most unexpected ways. This book charmed me from the get-go. I didn't want it to end. For readers who have been to Prague, it will be the most wonderful way to go back.
May 21, 2023
What a lovely, imaginative and entertaining novel! You meet a host of compelling characters who each have a relationship with a five-ton elephant as well as the Charles Bridge. Each also is in a relationship with a person that needs some sorting. The connections turn the individual stories into an especially fine novel.
October 19, 2023
I was waiting for all the stories to weave themselves together and some of them had loose ends. I was excited to support a local author and drawn to the book through my love of elephants and Lucy and was happy to find out the author spent time with her. It was a stretch for me to read a book narrated by a bridge.
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October 3, 2023Interesting book - regarding the "language' and "thoughts" of elephants. The book weaves the story for various people and the occurence of a given day - some of these people have connections to one another and others do not. It is well written and executed.
November 25, 2023
Just a beautiful book. Trofimuk is a marvellous storyteller.
The Elephant in Karluv Bridge. I find this book insanely beautiful. The characters touch me deeply. They are like beautiful but bruised fruit, needing to be held and examined with utmost care.
The Elephant in Karluv Bridge. I find this book insanely beautiful. The characters touch me deeply. They are like beautiful but bruised fruit, needing to be held and examined with utmost care.
March 5, 2023
Liked all the interwoven stories that culminated on the bridge, but the ending - what about Sal the elephant?
March 15, 2023
I truly loved this book. The connections between the characters, the bridge, the elephant, the city of Prague- all so wonderfully described
May 16, 2023
4 1/2 stars
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews