What is Erica Wagner reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Erica Wagner, author of Chief Engineer: Washington Roebling, The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge.

Her entry begins:

Neel Mukherjee's last novel, The Lives of Others, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize when it was published in 2014; I've just been reading A State of Freedom, his new book which will be published in July. Certainly it's a novel, but it reads too like a series of human stories whose deep connections only become clear when you turn the very last page of the book. Mukherjee builds a portrait of modern India through many layers of society: he has a fine ability to enter the minds and hearts of his characters, whoever they are and wherever they come from. It's a work of striking empathy and horrifying...[read on]

About Chief Engineer, from the publisher:

"I know that nothing can be done perfectly at the first trial; I also know that each day brings its little quota of experiences, which with honest intentions, will lead to perfection after a while." --Washington Roebling

His father conceived of the Brooklyn Bridge, but after John Roebling's sudden death, Washington Roebling built what has become one of American's most iconic structures--as much a part of New York as the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building. Yet, as recognizable as the bridge is, its builder is too often forgotten--and his life is of interest far beyond his chosen field. It is the story of immigrants, of the frontier, of the greatest crisis in American history, and of the making of the modern world.

Forty years after the publication of The Great Bridge, David McCullough's classic chronicle of how the East River was spanned, Erica Wagner has written a fascinating biography of one of America's most distinguished engineers, a man whose long life was a model of courage in the face of extraordinary adversity. Chief Engineer is enriched by Roebling's own eloquent voice, unveiled in his recently-discovered memoir that was previously thought lost to history.

The memoir reveals that his father, John-a renowned engineer who made his life in America after humble beginnings in Germany-was a tyrannical presence in Washington's life, so his own adoption of that career was hard won. A young man when the Civil War broke out, Washington joined the Union Army, building bridges that carried soldiers across rivers and seeing action in many pivotal battles, from Antietam to Gettysburg-aspects of his life never before fully brought to light. Safely returned, he married the remarkable Emily Warren Roebling, who would play a crucial role in the construction of the unprecedented Brooklyn Bridge. It would be Washington Roebling's grandest achievement-but by no means the only one.

Elegantly and insightfully written and meticulously researched, Chief Engineer will introduce Washington Roebling and his era to a new generation of readers.

Visit Erica Wagner's website.

Writers Read: Erica Wagner.

--Marshal Zeringue