Bridge Retakes, the debut novel by Angela Lopes, is a whirlwind tale of love and family and the distances that people will (or won’t) go to secure what they want.

A Bahian man and a Brazilian-Canadian woman meet on an online dating site. They come from very different worlds–geographically, economically, religiously–and yet, their connection is undeniable. When these long-distance lovers run up against their own belief systems and those of their families and communities, it’s their desire to build a life anew that keeps them moving forward. But all the while, issues of money, class, gender, and corruption threaten to tear them apart.