Colum McCann

Shortlisted for the Irish Novel of the YearShortlisted for the International Dublin Literary AwardLonglisted for the Man Booker Prize‘A marvellously engrossing journey, studded with ideas and lyrical treats’ The Times______________________________________In 1919, pioneering journalist Emily Ehrlich watches as two young airmen emerge from the carnage of World War One to pilot the very first non-stop transatlantic flight from Newfoundland to the west of Ireland. In 1845 Frederick Douglass, a Black American slave, lands in Ireland to champion ideas of democracy and freedom, only to find a famine unfurling at his feet. And in 1998 Senator George Mitchell criss-crosses the ocean in search of an elusive Irish peace. Stitching these stories intricately together, Colum McCann sets out to explore the fine line between what is real and what is imagined, and the tangled skein of connections that make up our lives. ‘History comes vividly to life in a majestic work’ Sunday Times‘Beautifully hypnotic ... Those who can’t see the point of historical novels will find their answer here’ Emma Donoghue‘Expertly constructed ... The prose is poetically vivid’ Observer

‘A gifted and determined stylist, Colum McCann seems to have taken a vow never to write a dull line’ New York Times Book Review'Orwell would have been proud to journey with a writer as good as Colum McCann' Irish Sunday Independent______________________An ageing nun is tracked to ground by her sister; a garrulous beautician must lay out the corpse of a loved one. These are eloquent tales of exile and displacement, of characters always in search of a way back home or of a way to leave it. Mischievous, assured and versatile, Colum McCann's collection of short stories marks him out as one of our best contemporary writers.

‘A powerful and moving collection’ Roddy Doyle___________________A group of British soldiers appear to help a farmer and his daughter free their horse from a stream in a flood. A young boy and his mother, under cover of night, painstakingly prepare for the marching season ahead. And a young woman and her son sit over a game of chess in a Galway caravan, their thoughts elsewhere – in the Derry prison where a young man is slowly succumbing to hunger strike. Everything in this Country Must reveals the reverberations of political tragedy in the most intimate lives of men and women, parents and children – and confirms Colum McCann as a master storyteller. ‘These are powerful stories – gritty, memorable and ambitious … Goes straight to the heart, both in terms of its theme and its emotional punch’ Edna O’Brien ‘McCann writes with a dazzling blend of menace and heartbreak’ New York Times‘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

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARDWinner of the Dublin Impac International PrizeWinner of Best Foreign Novel Award Weshanhu AwardWinner of the Grinzane AwardWinner of the Prix DeauvilleWinner of the Ambassador Book AwardWinner of the Medici Book Club PrizeWinner of the Aspen Literary Prize‘A wow of a novel – rich, humane, brilliantly written and as deep as it is wide’ The Times____________________________________ New York, August 1974: a man is walking in the sky. Between the newly built Twin Towers, the man twirls through the air. Far below, the lives of complete strangers spin towards each other: Corrigan, a radical Irish monk working in the Bronx; Claire, a delicate Upper East Side housewife reeling from the death of her son; Lara, a drug-addled young artist; Gloria, solid and proud despite decades of hardship; Tillie, a hooker who used to dream of a better life; and Jazzlyn, her beautiful daughter raised on promises that reach beyond the skyline of New York. In the shadow of one reckless and beautiful act, these disparate lives will collide, and be transformed for ever. ‘A glorious, thumping tale of intersecting lives, told in a language that all but sings’ Kamila Shamsie‘One of the most electric, profound novels I have read in years ... an emotional tour de force’ New York Times ‘McCann has reinvented the city of New York in all its breathing, fighting, whining, joyous clamour’ Peter Carey, Observer

‘A great book and a marvellously crafted story’ Roddy Doyle ____________________________________Zoli Novotna is a poet by accident as much as desire. As Fascism spreads over Czechoslovakia, she and her grandfather flee an unspeakable loss to join a clan of fellow Romani harpists. As Zoli shapes the ancient songs to her times, she finds her gift embraced – by her own people, and, for the first time, by the world outside their circle. But Zoli has become an instrument herself – wielded by the hands of the powerful. And her greatness in her art will see her severed and exiled from the people and tradition she loves, setting her on a path she must tread alone…‘A hymn to specificity, a clamour against homogenisation … With each voice McCann performs an astonishing feat’ Richard Eyre, Guardian ‘A writer of large and driving vision … Zoli contains passages of stunning lyricism and sharp ironic force’ New York Times ‘Poetic and beautifully observed’ Daily Telegraph

‘Spins with virtuosic, charismatic brilliance around a core of wilful mystery’ Guardian________________________Russia in the 1940s. A small boy practises spinning on his mother’s wooden floors, entranced by what he can make his body do. His momentum will propel him far from home; we watch him turn, through the lives of his teachers, his partners on and off stage, through the eyes of doormen and shoemakers, hustlers and nurses, through the rehearsal rooms of Moscow to Parisian opera houses to the streets of New York – ablaze as a comet, his light hot enough to catch and burn. Masterfully blending fact and fiction to give an alternative biography of Rudolph Nureyev’s life, Dancer is not only the story of one of the most important artists in history – but a biography of the twentieth century itself. ‘McCann’s agile, muscular prose creates its own energy and rhythm … He has taken one of the most charismatic characters of the twentieth century and created a bold contemporary novel’ Daily Telegraph‘Remarkable … Does full justice to the tragic story of a dancer who was the glory of his generation’ Sunday Times‘Here is an astonishing book. Colum McCann writes with a ferocious eloquence and a masterly sense of narrative’ Spectator

From the New York Times-bestselling, National Book Award-winning, Booker Prize-longlisted author of Apeirogon and Let the Great World Spin‘Vivid, potent, beautiful’ Maggie O’FarrellAt the turn of the twentieth century, Nathan Walker comes to New York City to take the most dangerous job in the country: digging the tunnel far beneath the Hudson that will carry trains from Brooklyn to Manhattan. In the dark bowels of the riverbed, the workers – Black, white, Irish and Italian – dig together. Above ground, the men keep their distance from one another. But a dramatic accident on a bitter winter’s day welds a bond between Walker and his fellow workers, which will both bless and curse three generations. A love story of other times for these, our times, This Side of Brightness is an unforgettable story of race, faith and family. ‘Riveting and devastating’ Observer‘McCann writes with unusual truthfulness about poverty, degradation and love’ Daily Telegraph ‘Brilliant … A dramatic memorial to the working-men who built the greatest of modern cities’ Financial Times

**The instant Irish Times top 5 bestseller**‘Urgent and utterly compelling’ KEVIN BARRY‘Twist lingers long after you've put it down' GUARDIAN‘A Gatsby tale for the internet age’ ANNA FUNDER‘One of our greatest storytellers’ ELIF SHAFAK‘Masterful ... A surprising, electric book’ IRISH TIMESAnthony Fennell, a journalist, is in pursuit of a story buried at the bottom of the sea: the network of tiny fibre-optic tubes that carry the world’s information across the ocean floor - and what happens when they break. So he has travelled to Cape Town to board the George Lecointe, a cable repair vessel captained by Chief of Mission John Conway. Conway is a talented engineer and fearless freediver - and Fennell is quickly captivated by this mysterious, unnerving man and his beautiful partner, Zanele. As the boat embarks along the west coast of Africa, Fennell learns the rhythms of life at sea. But as the mission falters, tensions simmer - and Conway is thrown into crisis by a terrible, violent tragedy unfolding in the life he has left behind on land. Then Conway disappears; and Fennell must set out to find him. As taut and propulsive as a thriller, and a timeless exploration of narrative and truth, Twist is the work of a master storyteller at the height of his powers.

‘At once deep and dazzling’ Edna O’Brien___________________________________ With unreliable memories and scraps of photographs as his only clues, Conor Lyons follows in the tracks of his father, a rootless photographer, as he moved from war-torn Spain, to the barren plains of Mexico, where he met and married Conor’s mother, to the American West, and finally back to Ireland, where the marriage and the story reach their heartrending climax. As the narratives of Conor’s quest and his parents’ lives twine and untwine, Colum McCann creates a mesmerizing evocation of the gulf between memory and imagination, love and loss, past and present. ‘Potent, astonishing, fuelled by a unique descriptive vision … One of the most lyrically accomplished conclusions to a novel I have ever read’ Independent ‘A vivid, beautifully measured book’ Sunday Times ‘McCann writes intense, gripping prose full of sharp and telling details … Songdogs is an exciting book’ Times Literary Supplement

A darkly epic novel about connection, disconnection and destruction – from the New York Times-bestselling, National Book Award-winning, Booker Prize-longlisted author of Let the Great World Spin**The instant Irish Times top 5 bestseller****Named a 2025 book to look out for by the Observer, Financial Times, Irish Times and New European**‘Urgent and utterly compelling’ KEVIN BARRY‘Twist lingers long after you''ve put it down'' GUARDIAN‘A Gatsby tale for the internet age’ ANNA FUNDER‘One of our greatest storytellers’ ELIF SHAFAK‘Masterful ... A surprising, electric book’ IRISH TIMES‘A powerfully realist novel of men at sea … It speaks of the brokenness of our time, the successful and unsuccessful attempts at repairs, and the vulnerability of our world’ SALMAN RUSHDIE____________________________________________________Anthony Fennell, a journalist, is in pursuit of a story buried at the bottom of the sea: the network of tiny fibre-optic tubes that carry the world’s information across the ocean floor - and what happens when they break. So he has travelled to Cape Town to board the George Lecointe, a cable repair vessel captained by Chief of Mission John Conway. Conway is a talented engineer and fearless freediver - and Fennell is quickly captivated by this mysterious, unnerving man and his beautiful partner, Zanele. As the boat embarks along the west coast of Africa, Fennell learns the rhythms of life at sea, and finds his place among the band of drifters who make up the crew. But as the mission falters, tensions simmer - and Conway is thrown into crisis. A terrible, violent tragedy is unfolding in the life he has left behind on land; and, trapped out at sea, it seems as if the vast expanse of the ocean is closing in. Then Conway disappears; and Fennell must set out to find him. As taut and propulsive as a thriller, and a timeless exploration of narrative and truth, Twist is the work of a master storyteller at the height of his powers.''Electrifying, propulsive ... A masterful exploration of the elemental forces at work just below the surface of all our lives'' COLIN WALSH, author of Kala