The award-winning novel by French author Maylis de Kerangal tells the new dimensions of comedies and tragedies in the everyday life of globalization. People from the most diverse corners of the world come together, leading to unforeseen entanglements, relationships, and connections between individuals. Completely unfamiliar situations arise with unimaginable consequences, processes in which old attitudes confront the latest perspectives. In Coca, a city in fictional California, a massive bridge is set to be built at the beginning of our millennium, intended to bridge the last gap between Western civilization and the rest of untouched culture. People from all over the globe flock to this gigantic construction site, creating a human melting pot of unprecedented scale.