The novel The Bridge over the River Kwai was written by the French author Pierre Boulle.

Quick Scoop

  • The original book’s title in French is Le Pont de la rivière Kwaï , published in 1952 by Pierre Boulle, a French novelist and former engineer.
  • Boulle drew on his wartime experiences in Southeast Asia and the construction of the so‑called “Death Railway” to shape the story, which follows British POWs forced by the Japanese army to build a railway bridge.
  • The famous 1957 film adaptation is titled The Bridge on the River Kwai and credits Boulle as the source novelist; he was even (incorrectly) credited with the screenplay Oscar at the time, which was later officially reassigned to blacklisted writers Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson.

In short: when people ask “who wrote The Bridge over the River Kwai?”, the answer is Pierre Boulle , whose war‑inspired novel became one of the most iconic World War II stories in modern fiction.

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