Colum McCann is an internationally acclaimed author whose works delve deeply into the human experience. His prose is often described as musical, cinematic, and delicate, weaving together fact and fiction to explore complex relationships and pressing themes. McCann frequently stitches together disparate elements—history, art, nature, and politics—into cohesive, powerful narratives. His ability to intertwine personal tragedy with a universal call for peace and understanding resonates with readers globally.
Set in Ireland and America, the twelve gems in this award-winning volume are tales of exile, loss, love, and displacement. The characters--oddballs and outcasts, misfits and travelers--are all in search of a way back home, or a way to leave it--from the anorexic nun who ends her days in a Long Island convent hospital to the weathered boxing champ fond of stealing clothes from a New Orleans laundromat..
Colum McCann's most ambitious work to date, Apeirogon--named for a shape with a countably infinite number of sides--is a tour de force concerning friendship, love, loss, and belonging. Bassam Aramin is Palestinian. Rami Elhanan is Israeli. They inhabit a world of conflict that colors every aspect of their daily lives, from the roads they are allowed to drive on to the schools their daughters, Abir and Smadar, each attend, to the checkpoints both physical and emotional that they must negotiate. Their worlds shift irreparably after ten-year-old old Abir is killed by a rubber bullet and thirteen-year-old Smadar becomes the victim of suicide bombers. When Bassam and Rami learn of one another's stories, they recognize the loss that connects them and they attempt to use their grief as a weapon for peace. McCann crafts Apeirogon out of a universe of fictional and non-fictional material. He crosses centuries and continents, stitching time, art, history, nature, and politics together in a tale both heartbreaking and hopeful. Musical, cinematic, muscular, delicate, and soaring, Apeirogon is a novel for our times.
An extraordinary new novel from bestselling and award-winning writer Colum McCann
On a cold January day, J. Mendelssohn awakens in his Upper East Side apartment, frail and dependent on his carer. As he waits for the heating to kick in, the clacking pipes evoke memories of his childhood in Lithuania and Dublin, his esteemed career as a judge, and his late wife, Eileen. He later meets his son Elliot for lunch, but when Elliot leaves mid-meal, Mendelssohn finds himself dining alone as heavy snow falls outside. Shortly after leaving the restaurant, he suffers a brutal attack. Detectives investigate the incident, sifting through surveillance footage of Mendelssohn's movements, akin to a poet searching for the perfect word that will illuminate the entire narrative. The story unfolds through multiple perspectives, employing lyrical and hypnotic prose. This groundbreaking novella resonates deeply, complemented by three powerful stories set in Afghanistan, Galway, and London. It serves as a tribute to humanity's quest for meaning and grace, showcasing a writer at the peak of his craft, who can envision vastness even within the smallest details of life.
The debut novel from National Book Award winner and Booker nominee Colum McCann 'Colum McCann conjures a hugely inventive debut' Observer 'McCann writes equally well about Ireland, America and Mexico, and he links past and present in a finely woven narrative: Songdogs is a vivid, beautifully measured book' Sunday Times __________________ Colum McCann's first novel goes back to the years before the Spanish Civil War, following the adventures of a peripatetic Irish photographer from the war-strewn shores of Europe to the exotic plains of Mexico. The story is told in the words of the photographer's only son, a wanderer himself, who uses his father's unreliable memories and the fading remnants of his art to piece together his family history and explain the mystery surrounding his mother - a Mexican beauty brought back by his father to Ireland.
"A Russian peasant who became an international legend, a Cold War exile who inspired the adoration of millions, an artist whose name was a byword for genius, sex, and excess. The magnificence of Rudolf Nureyev's life and work is known, but now Colum McCann reinvents this figure through the light he shed on the lives of those who knew him." Boldly embellishing the biographical facts, McCann tells the story through a chorus of voices. There is Anna Vasileva, Rudi's first ballet teacher, who, banished from St. Petersburg, rescues her preternaturally talented protege from the stunted life of his town; Yulia, whose sexual and artistic ambitions are thwarted by her Soviet-sanctioned marriage; Victor, a decadent Venezuelan, who revels in the hedonism of the gay celebrity set; Odile, the legendary cook, who finds love at middle age while feeding the great and their hangers-on. Spanning four decades and many worlds, from the killing fields of World War II to the wild abandon of New York's gaudy eighties, Dancer is peopled by a large cast of characters, obscure and famous, real and imagined.
Emily watches as two airmen emerge from the carnage of World War One to pilot the first non-stop transatlantic flight. Among the mail being carried on the aircraft is a letter which will not be opened for almost 100 years. Senator George Mitchell criss-crosses the ocean in search of an elusive peace.
'McCann returns to Ireland with this collection, turning his measured gaze and incisive prose to the country's recent history with devastating effect' Maggie O'Farrell 'McCann once again shows why he is one of the best writers in the world ... Deeply moving and powerfully written, these are likely to become classics' Big Issue ___________________ One powerful novella, with two thematically linked short stories on either side of it, forms the basis of Everything in This Country Must. Although these are stories about Ireland and the Troubles, they have an almost mythical rather than a political feel. In the title story, four young soldiers help a farmer and his daughter free their horse from a stream in flood, unable to understand that their help will never be anything but an insult. In the novella, Hunger Strike, a young boy and his mother flee to Galway as the boy's uncle succumbs to a hunger strike in a Derry gaol. In Wood, a ten-year-old boy is asked by his mother to make poles for the marching season. ___________________ 'Colum McCann's stories are brooding, meditative and lyrically controlled to that delicate point where the emotion within them intensifies with each succeeding reading and recognition. The political turmoil of Northern Ireland finds here an answering, subtly respondent voice - wonderfully skilled and deeply felt' Seamus Deane
At the turn of the century, New York's sandhogs burrowed beneath the East River, digging the tunnels that would link Brooklyn to Manhattan; many decades later, those same tunnels offer refuge to the desperate and homeless. Spanning 70 years, McCann's acclaimed novel tells the story of three generations bound to the tunnels by ill-fated loves, unintended crimes, and social taboos.
The novel opens in early 1930s Czechoslovakia, introducing Zoli, a six-year-old Roma girl. After the fascist Hlinka guards force her people onto a frozen lake, Zoli loses her family when the ice cracks in spring. She and her grandfather seek a 'company' for survival. Zoli learns to read and write, becoming a singer—a respected role within the gypsy community, as they are seen as keepers of tradition. However, Zoli distinguishes herself by secretly writing her own songs. As Nazi oppression escalates, Zoli's life changes dramatically. By the time the war concludes, she is 16, and socialism brings a brief recognition of the Roma as 'comrades.' During this period, she falls for Stephen Swann, who ultimately betrays her while encouraging her to publish her work. When the government attempts to exploit her to 'settle' the gypsies, her community turns against her, condemning her to 'Pollution for Life,' leading to her exile. This journey takes her to Italy, where she seeks a new beginning. Loosely inspired by the true story of the Gypsy poet Papsuza, the narrative explores themes of betrayal, redemption, and the power of storytelling, vividly capturing the culture and historical context.
