Twist
Author(s): Colum McCann
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 and Apeirogon.
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 on 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.
General Information
- :
- : Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- : Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- : 320.0
- : 25 February 2025
- : books
Other Specifications
- : Colum McCann
- : Paperback
- : English
- : 256
- : FA
More About The Product
McCann may follow Coppola upriver and Conrad to the heart of darkness but the concerns of his novel are contemporary and urgent and utterly compelling. This is an ambitious novel, note perfect, wild but controlled, with its deft apparatus mapping our most mysterious 21st century malaise - the great loneliness of the connected world -- KEVIN BARRY
McCann can find beauty, even mystery, on the front lines of danger and conflict - much like Michael Ondaatje, whose prose his own recalls ... McCann's close-focus descriptive prose - taut, compressed, image-rich - flashes like sunken treasure ... Few novelists pay such close, visionary, heed to the "true stories of our times" * FINANCIAL TIMES
*McCann gives his tale the sense of a held breath ... Part thriller, part existential mediation on self, Twist is a strange and satisfying book that reaches for the depths * NEW STATESMAN
* Full of wonder at the scale and beauty of the natural world - and full of anger at humanity's capacity to wreck it ... There are passages of extraordinary vividness, evoked with a power that seems to persuade you that you're either a participant or a witness ... Builds to a bravura climactic escapade ... I loved the thoughtful, essayistic inquiries into nature and the environment, and the consciousness-raising voyage towards the broken cable ... Like Heart of Darkness, Twist lingers after you've put it down * GUARDIAN
*An exhilarating adventure reminiscent of Joseph Conrad, with just a hint of Graham Greene * MAIL ON SUNDAY
*Masterful, a surprising, electric book ... A wired up story of what it means to be bend yourself into new shapes, and be broken * IRISH TIMES
*Dazzling ... a plot that uncoils with page-turning urgency ... McCann's prose has a power and lyrical propulsion that can be quite dazzling ... an unexpected denouement that uncoils with page-turning urgency * ESQUIRE
*Not unlike a thriller ... There's still the same relish of language, character and empathy that's twice seen McCann make the Booker Prize longlist * RADIO TIMES, Book of the month
*A Graham Greene-ish thriller ... Dark, moving and very entertaining -- Alex Preston
Colum McCann's seven novels and three collections of short stories have been published in over forty languages and received some of the world's most prestigious literary awards and honours, including the National Book Award for his novel Let the Great World Spin in 2009. His novel TransAtlantic was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2013, and his most recent novel, Apeirogon, also longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, is an international bestseller on four continents. colummccann.com
