The novel starts with their father, referred to as 'the murderer', coming back into their lives requesting their help to build a bridge.

Meanwhile, several years and decades prior, a young Penny sits at the piano with her father Waldek, who hits her hands with a twig every time she gets a note wrong.

Growing up in the Eastern Bloc, Waldek wants a bigger life for his daughter—he mentors her at the piano and reads her The Iliad and The Odyssey.

Death creeps in, and at the end of her life Clay, not Michael, is the one to spend her final moments with her, outside in the garden underneath the clothesline.

Eventually the bridge is finished, and Clay disappears across the world for many years until he returns for Matthew's wedding.

That's all I can say about it for now—not out of secrecy, but you just don't know what direction a book is going to take, no matter how well you've planned.In March 2016, Zusak talked about his unfinished novel Bridge of Clay.

[9] Publishers Weekly commented that Zusak builds tension skilfully by his use of foreshadowing and symbolism, which exposes the secrets of the story.

They also praised his use of historical scope to create a "sensitively rendered tale of loss, grief, and guilt's manifestations".

[10] Though praising the book for its symbolic weight, The Washington Post points out that the work is burdened by its two decades of rewriting and revising, claiming the story to be 'extravagantly over-engineered'.

[4] The Guardian finds that much like his previous novel The Book Thief, Death plays a major part of this work—noting that 'death steals the show'.

Noting that his use of colors often leads to "theatrical illumination", and that this work, unlike his former is "affirmatively full of life".