McCann, Colum – The Bell Bookshop

Twist

Emma — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

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

**Named a 2025 book to look out for by the Observer, Financial Times, Irish Times and New European**

‘Urgent and utterly compelling’ KEVIN BARRY

‘One of our greatest storytellers‘ ELIF SHAFAK

‘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

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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

American mother

Emma — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

‘An extraordinary story of grace, forgiveness and moral courage’ Patrick Radden KeefeA 2024 HIGHLIGHT IN THE OBSERVER, GUARDIAN AND IRISH TIMESThe English language has no specific word for the parent that has lost a child. There exist words for orphan, widow and widower, but there is no word that captures and conveys this tragic type of loss. It has been eleven years since Diane Foley’s son, the American journalist James Foley, was kidnapped in northern Syria, and nearly ten since that day in August 2014 when she would learn that he had been murdered by ISIS in a public beheading that would ricochet in video around the world. A whole decade. Time rushes past. And yet, for Diane, that moment is unending. In American Mother, legendary author Colum McCann tells Diane’s story as she recalls the months of his captivity, the efforts made to bring him home and the days following his death, in which Diane came face to face with one of the men responsible for her son’s kidnapping and torture. A testament to the power of radical empathy and moral courage, American Mother takes us inside one woman’s extraordinary journey to find connection in a world torn asunder, and to fight for others as a way to keep her son’s memory alive.

Apeirogon

Emma — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERLONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZESHORTLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARDSHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIX FEMINA AND THE PRIX MEDICISSHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSBORO BOOKS GLASS BELL AWARDWINNER OF THE PRIX DU MEILLEUR LIVRES ETRANGERWINNER OF THE 2020 NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARDS CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF 2020 BY THE SUNDAY TIMES, OBSERVER, GUARDIAN, i PAPER, FINANCIAL TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, SCOTSMAN, IRISH TIMES, BBC.COM, WATERSTONES.COM‘A wondrous book. It left me hopeful; this is its gift’ Elizabeth Strout‘An empathy engine … It is, itself, an agent of change’ New York Times Book Review‘A quite extraordinary novel’ Kamila Shamsie______________________How do we continue living once we have lost our reason to live?Rami and Bassam live in the city of Jerusalem – but exist worlds apart, divided by an age-old conflict. And yet they have one thing in common. Both are fathers; both are fathers of daughters – and both daughters are now lost.When Rami and Bassam meet, and tell one another the story of their grief, the most unexpected thing of all happens: they become best of friends. And their stories become one story, a story with the power to heal – and the power to change the world.______________________‘The book goes anywhere and everywhere. It is a delirious and thrilling improvisation, a jazz solo spun out of that meeting ? A spectacular structure of stories about everything’ Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times

Dancer

Emma — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

‘Remarkable … nimble, lyrical and wispy’ Sunday Times‘An utterly riveting, frequently moving, and staggeringly well-written book’ Daily Mail‘Breathtaking’ Guardian________________________This novel opens on a battlefield: trudging back from the front 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, desperate for food and shelter.They find both, and then music and dance. And there, spinning unafraid among them, dancing for the soldiers and anyone else who’ll watch him, is one small pale boy, Rudolf. This is Colum McCann’s dancer: Rudolf, a prodigy at six years old, who became the greatest dancer of the century, who redefined dance, rewrote his own life, and died of AIDS before anyone knew he had it. This is an extraordinary life transformed into extraordinary fiction by one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation. One kind of masculine grace is perfectly matched to another in Colum McCann’s beautiful and daring new novel.