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..
"Bassam Aramin is Palestinian. Rami Elhanan is Israeli. They inhabit a world of intractable conflict that colors every aspect of their daily lives, from the roads they are allowed to take to the schools their daughters, Abir and Smadar, each attend. Theirs is a life in which children from both sides of the wall throw stones at one another. But their worlds shift irreparably when ten-year-old old Abir is killed by a rubber bullet meant to quell unruly crowds, and again when thirteen-year-old Smadar becomes the victim of suicide bombers. When Bassam and Rami learn one another's stories and the loss that connects them, they become part of a much larger tale that ranges over centuries and continents. Apeirogon is a novel that balances on the knife edge of fiction and nonfiction. Bassam and Rami are real men and their actual words are a part of this narrative, one that builds through thousands of moments and images into one grand, unforgettable crescendo"-- Provided by publisher
A rich vision of the pain, loveliness, mystery, and promise of New York City in the 1970s. A radical young Irish monk struggles with his own demons as he lives among the prostitutes in the middle of the burning Bronx. A group of mothers gather in a Park Avenue apartment to mourn their sons who died in Vietnam, only to discover just how much divides them even in grief. A young artist finds herself at the scene of a hit-and-run that sends her own life careening sideways. A 38-year-old grandmother, turns tricks alongside her teenage daughter, determined not only to take care of her family but to prove her own worth. Weaving together these and other seemingly disparate lives, McCann's allegory comes alive in the voices of the city's people, unexpectedly drawn together by hope, beauty, and the "artistic crime of the century"--A mysterious tightrope walker dancing between the Twin Towers.--From publisher description.
As it was, it was like being set down in the best of poems, carried into a cold landscape, blindfolded, turned around, unblindfolded, forced, then, to invent new ways of seeing. It is a cold day in January when J. Mendelssohn wakes in his Upper East Side apartment. Old and frail, he is entirely reliant on the help of his paid carer, and as he waits for the heating to come on, the clacking of the pipes stirs memories of the past; of his childhood in Lithuania and Dublin, of his distinguished career as a judge, and of his late wife, Eileen. Later he leaves the house to meet his son Elliot for lunch, and when Eliot departs mid-meal, Mendelssohn continues eating alone as the snow falls heavily outside. Moments after he leaves the restaurant he is brutally attacked. The detectives working on the case search through the footage of Mendelssohn's movements, captured by cameras in his home and on the street. Their work is like that of a poet: the search for a random word that, included at the right instance, will suddenly make sense of everything. Told from a multitude of perspectives, in lyrical, hypnotic prose, Thirteen Ways of Looking is a ground-breaking novella of true resonance. Accompanied by three equally powerful stories set in Afghanistan, Galway and London, this is a tribute to humanity's search for meaning and grace, from a writer at the height of his form, capable of imagining immensities even in the smallest corners of our lives.
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.
Trudging back through a ravaged and icy wasteland, their horses dying around them, their own hunger rendering them almost savage, the Russian soldiers are exhausted as they reach the city of Ufa. There, dancing unafraid among them, is one small pale boy. His name is Rudolf.
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.
