What an amazing book! McCann attempts to shine light on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a novel way. It is a fictional account based on 2 real people who want to change the world positively after both their daughters, from different cultures and backgrounds, are killed, unnecessarily, in a violent manner.
What's especially interesting is the way in which the author wrote the book. He has crafted the story in such a unique manner, through short snippets that add to the impact of the story. His imagery is captivating.
The book has a clear message and, hopefully, one that can help to bring understanding to the strife there.

McCann is a champion of the polyphonic novel. In each consecutive novel, he plays with voices of people who live in different dimensions of the world, separated either by class, race, nationality or a combination of each to tighten the seams on a seemingly disparate world. This kind of harmonizing is illuminating, not always to a way of peace, but to show the connection of our humanity. Apeirogon feels like an attempt at breaking the limits of the polyphonic novel. The introduction of voices can feel disruptive. A rapid change of pace and tone. Undeveloped. The people that are strung along in this novel by gossamer threads - if we do not look closely, we may miss where one starts and the other begins. But it works, maybe because he has built a corpus of momentum towards innovating this form and structure, and maybe because this story itself is so cacophonous that an enigmatic structure is the only way to form this novel.

Apeirogon is a story on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and focuses on the lives of two grieving father who fall on different sides of the border - Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian, and Rami Elhanan, an Israeli. "If you divide death by life, you will find a circle." Both of their daughters, Abir (Bassam's daughter) at age 10 and Smadar (Rami's daughter) at age 14, were casualties to the conflict of a never ending war. The power dynamics between Rami and Bassam are different so he in no way equivocate their struggles with the people of the other side of the border. Palestine is occupied by Israeli soldiers, stripped of any kind of national identity, and often reduced to a stereotype. Those is Israel have the option to completely occlude themselves in the shelter of their homes without paying much attention to a war happening just miles away. But their struggle isn't against sides as much as it is against war. McCann takes a journalistic approach to allow both Bassam and Rami to speak of their movement with Combatants for Peace, birthed out of the Parents Circle Family Forum begun after the death of Abir, to create solidarity amongst dignified human beings on both sides to fight the terrorization of war, nationalism, and colonialism. It frames the conflict as a swelling resulted from the persecution of Holocaust. A story of victims becoming victimizers. Of a theology that commits warfare, dispossession, and displacement against Palestinians. It is driven by Rami and Bassam's vision that borrows from traditions of Gandhi and the Civil Rights Era, using civil disobedience as a movement for change. The chapter structure is a numerical palindrome that sings a song with the existential ideas of death and life. If it works for you, it really works. And it did for me. To me, it was a masterpiece.

Five stars for the actual plot, one for everything else. This book frustrated me so much because the author took a great story & buried it in a haze of historical anecdotes. This book has at its heart a unique story of the friendship between an Israeli & a Palestinian born out of terrible tragedy. Rami & Bassam's parallel stories are compelling enough on their own. There's no need for all the extraneous information the author overwhelms the reader with. I wanted so much more out of this book. It had the potential to tell an impactful story about unity in the face of diversity & completely squandered it. The only parts of it that were completely engrossing were the two center sections where the perspective shifts from third-person to first-person.

Apeirogon took me nearly a week to read. not that i was going but so much was going on that i had to take in, in parts. This book extraordinary beyond any words I can place here. Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC!

Whoa. A story about two fathers, one Palestinian and one Israeli, who both lost their daughters in horrible ways...heartbreaking. This book was poetic and very beautifully written, but I should've read the author 's other works, before requesting this book.

The book was long and I could not read it by publication date and I'm sorry but I kept picking it up and putting it down. I feel the audio version would be much better.

I did not understand why the chapters went down, ending with chapter one and some of the 500 chapters were one word and some were one sentence, but I did not understand why there were facts that had nothing to do with the story were piled on us.

Also this is not my usual genre, I didn't realize that it was a non-fiction book, but this book was too much for me, even though it may be my own fault for reading a book waaay beyond my scope of understanding.

Still, others may love this book, it just wasn't for me. It was different than my normal read, that's for sure!

Thank you to Random House Publishing, NetGalley and author Colum McCann for my ARC of this book.

Apeirogon manages to do something very hard, very well- it depicts war and human suffering in an accurate manner that does not sugar coat any details, but that still leaves the reader with a lingering sense of beauty and humanity. Colum McCann captures the universal human want for peace through two families living through the Israel/Palestine conflict, primarily through the lens of the fathers of the families, one from each country. The story is told in stanzas (some long, some just a few words) that weaves the voices of the very real and living fathers with fictional imaginings, non-fiction historical moments that span centuries, and, for lack of a better description, gorgeous portraits of various birds in relation to the events described.

This is a book that takes its time (certain structural moments reminded me of Tristram Shandy, of all books) and speaks on incredibly heavy and real moments, leaning me to recommend being in a healthy headspace before diving in, but once you do you'll be immersed to the extent of wanting answers to questions that will take decades to fully unfold.

Review posted on Instagram: @booktherapyphilly on 4/5/20

Wish I could give this book 5,000 stars! It is so very thought provoking. So much art, memory, and feelings. Although I do not agree with the underlying political intent, I feel it opened my eyes to issues of which I was not aware. Showed me some of the other side of the story. Didn't change my opinion but I can now understand from where the other side is coming. Hopefully some day there will be peace in Israel, perhaps by finding commonalities rather than differences. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC, apologies for taking so long to read this book but it is deep and dark.

Apeirogan is told in a series of segments, ranging from a chapter's length, to a single sentence and numbered first from one to 500, then 1001, then backwards from 500 down to one. And in between snippets about Middle Eastern birds and vignettes about various historical events, science tidbits and folk tales lies the story of two men, Rami Elahanan and Bassam Aramin.

Colum McCann isn't creating a story here, but recounting real events about living people, but using his immense skills as a novelist to approach the heart of the matter, not with a recounting of events, although that is part of this book, but a portrait of a friendship and a partnership between a Palestinian and a Jewish Israeli, both of whom had daughters who were killed, Smadar and Abir, one by a Palestinian suicide bomber as she shopped on a busy market street with friends, one by a rubber bullet aimed by an Israeli soldier as she walked back to school after buying candy. Both men work tirelessly towards a peace that often seems impossible. And their own histories are fascinating. Rami is the son-in-law of a founding member of the Knesset and a man who tried to live outside of the conflicts of the Israeli state, before having to put his life into working towards a peace although simply opposing the Occupation makes him a traitor in the eyes of many of his fellow citizens. And Bassam was imprisoned as a teenager as a terrorist, learned Hebrew while incarcerated and became a scholar of the Holocaust. The death of his daughter happened years into his involvement with the peace movement and he didn't hesitate to continue with that work despite that and the constant danger he faces simply moving regularly between Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Surprisingly, this isn't a preachy book, although there is a clear point of view. It's gorgeously told and so well-constructed, with the central sections being led up to and then the hinge on which the remainder of the book rests. Towards the beginning of this book, I worried that the sheer skill and beauty of the writing were preventing an emotional connection. By the middle, I no longer thought that. McCann has written a book that serves his subject matter well.

McCann is one of my favorite authors. His writing is beautiful, and that is true with this book. Sadly, the way the story was written in disjointed segments was just too complex for me and I had to abandon it halfway.

I must preface this review, by saying that I had to read the New York Times book review before I appreciated this book. I don’t like reading other opinions before I read this book, but there was so much information about why McCann wrote this in such short chapters. Once I understood what an apeirogon was, things started to make sense. It is a polygon with an infinate number of sides. It a novel based on the death of two girls in Israel. One is Jewish and one is Muslim. The two fathers became friends and have spent countless hours talking about creating a peaceful world. Voices of many people are heard in this 457-page book. It is not a book to be read quickly, but rather a book to grief the death of innocent people as well as hope that things can change.

This book examines the relationship between the Israelis and the Palestinians through the stories of two fathers. Rami Elhanan is an Israeli whose 13 year old daughter Smadar was murdered by suicide bombers. Bassam Aramin is a Palestinian whose 10 year old daughter Abir was murdered by an Israeli soldier. Both men join a Parents Council of similarly devastated parents. To read this book is to “listen to the stories of Bassam and Rami, and to find within their stories another story, a song of songs, discovering themselves – you and me – in the stone-tiled chapel where we sit for hours, eager, hopeless, buoyed, confused, cynical, complicit, silent, our memories imploding, our synapses skipping, in the gathering dark, remembering while listening, all of those stories that are yet to be told.”

The book is beautifully written and the story is very compelling, however one of the most interesting things about the book is it’s unique structure. It’s sort of gimmicky, but it certainly keeps you reading. The book is comprised of 1001 short chapters, some consisting of only a single sentence, phrase or photograph. They sometimes feel like random thoughts and I didn’t always know how they fit into the story. The chapters are numbered 1-500, then 1001 and finally 500-1, so at the end of the book you have circled back to the beginning. Hard to explain, you just need to experience it. The book deals not only with the lives of the two families, both before and after the tragedies, but also with the politics of the region, exploration ofThe Dead Sea, water scarcity, prison life and ortolans. Here are 4 examples of complete chapters: “It is often a surprise to travelers that the River Jordan is, in so many places, not much more than a trickle.”, “One instant there, the next gone. Whisked out of midair.”, “Water dissolves more substances than any other liquid, even acid.”, and “The sort of hospital that needed a hospital.”

I’d rate this book 4.5 stars, because the author could have made things a little easier for readers, but I’m definitely rounding up. FYI, “Apeirogon [is] a shape with a countably infinite number of sides.”

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

What a read! I was more interested in Apeirogon because I really enjoyed Let the Great World Spin, as opposed to the subject matter of this book. I wasn't sure I was ready for the emotional toll I knew the book would take.

The format of 1001 "chapters" (some as short as a single sentence) was a little forced, and some of the bird-related information didn't quite work for me, but after I made it through the first third of the book I could barely put it down. By the time I finished I felt like Rami and Bassam were people I know, whose situations make my heart hurt. I don't know that anyone with a settled hard right- or left-wing position on Israel would make it through, but I would encourage them to try.

Many thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC.

Published by Random House on February 25, 2020

Colum McCann tells us that an apeirogon is a “shape with a countably infinite number of sides.” In a book that examines the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, the title is apt. There are more than two “sides” to the conflict; everyone has an opinion. The novel is a balanced attempt to do justice to all the opinions by cutting through the politics and focusing on the deaths of two children, one Israeli and one Palestinian. Apeiron explores how the aftermath of those two real-world deaths illuminates the larger issues that Israel and Palestine face.

McCann tells the reader that Apeirogon is “a hybrid novel with invention at its core” that weaves together “speculation, memory, fact, and imagination.” The novel is remarkable because it is based on two remarkable people. Rami Elhanan, an Israeli, lost his daughter to suicide bombers when she was thirteen. Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian, lost his son to a Border Patrol guard when he was ten. Both men traveled on a complex internal journey before arriving at the realization that their grief was not their own, but was the same grief shared by all parents of children who die violent deaths. The realization that your enemy has feelings, the same feelings that engulf you, sparks the understanding that this person isn’t your enemy at all. A parent who lost a child is not an enemy.

The two men arrived at the same conclusion — ending the Occupation is the only way to achieve peace and justice, to prevent the senseless deaths of more children. They started Combatants for Peace to spread that message. Their position is unthinkable to people who believe they have something to gain from the Occupation. They hope to change minds, one at a time, knowing that some of their audience will refuse to listen. Both men are routinely threatened with violence because they spread a message that entrenched minds cannot bear to hear.

To oppress others is to invite violence. The truth of that statement is evident in the history of countries across the globe. Apeirogon illustrates that truth with two violent deaths. Smadar was blown to unrecoverable pieces by a Palestinian suicide bomber. The rubber bullet that crushed Abir’s skull was fired at the back of her head through a slot in an armored car from a distance of fifteen meters, an act the Israeli military first lied about (claiming she was hit by a rock) and later justified by claiming Palestinians were placing soldiers in mortal danger by throwing stones at their impenetrable vehicle. Abir likely died because the Palestinian hospital in Anata is underequipped and the fifteen-minute ambulance ride to Jerusalem was delayed by two hours at a checkpoint.

In the absence of the Occupation, neither death would likely have occurred. Arguments about the justification for violence on either side can rage until the end of time, but Rami and Bassam (and many others) have come to understand that violence will not end until the Occupation ends. Only then can a political solution be negotiated. Only when Palestinians and Israelis are equally regarded as worthy of life and liberty can peace be achieved.

The story documents the hatred with which both Rami and Bassam are routinely greeted. Some people are more comfortable feeling hatred than living without it. McCann repeatedly quotes François Mitterand’s adage, “The only interesting thing is to live,” in contexts that suggest a refinement: the only interesting thing — to live purposefully — is also a dangerous thing. Both Bassam and Rami place themselves at risk by calling for an end to the Occupation. The irony — people consumed by hate respond violently to calls for peace — is just one “interesting” aspect of living.

But Apeirogon is a novel, not a work of nonfiction. McCann imagines connections between the men that might only be apparent in a novel. A common theme in Colum McCann’s fiction is that we all share a world that connects us in many ways. In Apeirogon, an author’s note attributes to Rilke the notion that we live our lives “in widening circles that reach out across the expanse.” Apeirogon suggests some of the more violent connections. The concoction that the Israeli military sprays onto crowds from water cannons is manufactured in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The M-16 used to kill Abir was manufactured in Samaria, North Carolina. Samaria was the ancient kingdom of Israel; now there are cities and towns named Samaria in many nations. Flying over those towns are migrating birds that know no boundaries.

McCann’s novels often reach out in multiple directions for facts that, until they are assembled, might seem unrelated to the story. Apeirogon addresses, among other topics: falconry, amicable numbers, Sinéad O’Connor, tear gas delivery systems, Borges, the Kaballah, Sir Richard Francis Burton, methods of torture used in the Crusades, Einstein and Freud, swimming pools, Gandhi, German cinema during World War II, the ascetic practices of Saint Simeon, religious scrolls, Philippe Petit, the etymology of “riot” and “dextrose,” Munib Rashid al-Masri’s mansion, pomegranates, the music of John Cage, olive groves, birdsong, and Mossad’s revenge killings of poets and playwrights. The novel also pays tribute to One Thousand and One Nights, both by reference to the famous stories and by breaking the novel into 1,001 chapters (some as short as a sentence).

In the end, a novel like Apeirogon might not change the minds of people who are wedded to a position, but it manages to do something that novelists are positioned to do more skillfully than political writers: it instills feeling. It is impossible for an open-minded reader not to be moved by both Bassam and Rami. Bassam’s life changed in prison and changed again when his daughter was killed. Rami visited the site of his daughter’s death and asked himself what could be done to save other children. McCann makes palpable the suffering of both parents. The story is both moving and inspirational. If only the right people would read it and take it to heart, Apeirogon is a book that could change the world.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Author Colum McCann sought to render onto paper what he perceived as a living breathing human in the Mideast of the 21st Century. His challenge was to share widely what was already overblown and misunderstood; he has created a masterpiece. His book is based around twin concepts that are remarkable and fascinating: a mathematical concept, with infinite sides approaching a circle, and The Thousand and One Nights, folks tales known everywhere and authored by everyone. He references the concept that the 1001 Tales ‘were already an intricate part of humankind’s unconscious memory.’ As is Israel and its troubles today.

McCann takes two real people, with terrible, painful stories, and weaves them together to form a whole tale. In between he tells numerous bits and pieces that fill out their world, as well as ours. He transforms our knowledge into something more, both infinitely more painful but vastly more alive.

It is an act of bravery to speak of these things, to write them down, and yes, to read the entire book. This is how the world is changed he hopes, his protagonists believe, and I also, hope. This is a masterpiece. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley. Deep gratitude.

Structurally meant to confuse; the reader never feels the ground beneath their feet, just like war or grief.

At the center is a true story that on its own would be enough to base a fictionalization: two fathers whose daughters were killed come together as an example of overcoming the Israeli/Palestine conflict. But McCann goes further by structuring the storytelling into 1001 mini disjointed stories (just like Scheherazade). The resulting effort made me feel like I was swinging from emotion to emotion, then thrown into bird facts and history retellings. I was never on solid ground with the story.

"Bassam and Rami gradually came to understand that they would use the force of their grief as a weapon."

The symbolism is everywhere, especially with the migratory birds meant to contrast between the freedom of movement birds have vs the constricted movements of those in the West Bank. Then there's the spiderwebs of connections threading all stories together spelling out that we’re all connected. There is no them vs us.

I've attempted McCann's Let the Great World Spin but didn't make it very far. Apeirogon is beautifully written and well crafted, I may have to try Let the Great World Spin again.

Story: 4 stars
Character Development: 3 stars
Writing/Prose: 5 stars

Colum McCann’s Apeirogon could well be the most powerful historical fiction you have ever read and one of the few that is not only history, but also—all too sadly—a novel of today.
Several times McCann mentions One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of folk tales spanning centuries and countries, thus revealing why he organized Apeirogon into 1001 fragments also spanning centuries and countries. An apeirogon, he tells us, is a shape with a countably infinite number of sides.

Apeirogon tells the story of two men who each lost a daughter and, through their losses, became brothers. Although that may sound like a simple story, it is an extraordinary one. Rami Elhanan is an Israeli whose 13-year-old daughter Smadar was killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber; Bassan Aramin is a Palestinian whose 10-year-old daughter Abir was killed roughly a decade later by a rubber bullet fired by an Israeli soldier in a military jeep. The men have reason to hate each other; instead, they work together, hoping to change the world.

Many of the fragments recount the story of these two men, interviewed by McCann and giving him permission to tell their real story but also, as he explains, giving him permission “to shape and reshape their words and worlds.” McCann does not tell a chronological story. He jumps around in time and place, interspersing those bits and pieces with seemingly unrelated natural phenomenon, inventions, discoveries, literature, and little-known historical figures. For example, the reader learns about migratory patterns of birds, about the American military’s WWII bat bomb project, eventually replaced by the Manhattan Project, and about how an atomic bomb intended for Kokura, Japan ended up being dropped on Nagasaki. Readers experience the perilous 1834 trip of a young Irishman determined to reach the Dead Sea and learn how Nazis fooled a team of Danish Red Cross inspectors into believing that one of the concentration camps was a fine place to be held prisoner. These stories and many more, such as those of Arik and Yitzhak Frankenthal and of Wael Zuaiter, intertwine with the stories of Rami and Smadar, Bassan and Amir, gradually coalescing into a many-sided whole.

Colum McCann’s Apeirogon teaches us that there are many truths, that geography is everything, and that one story becomes another. I am allowed to rate this superlative book only on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being high. If possible, I would award it 1001.

Thanks to Random House, NetGalley, and Colum McCann for providing an Advance Reader Copy.

Apeirogon is so complex it’s possibly the hardest review I’ve done. Bassam and Rami’s ability to come together despite the injustices in their respective countries was full of so much inspiration and hope. The way these fathers navigate the depths of their grief was unimaginable and beautifully portrayed. Their stories of such a tumultuous time allow the Israeli and Palestinian conflicts and their impact on the people to come into focus for those of us fortunate to not have had to live such a life. I was taken with the writing and the ambition of the author to tackle such subject matter in the unusual way he did. I found the format to be a challenging way to tell a story, fragmented in many short chapters that at times felt like information overload. I enjoyed the many facts throughout the book that in the moment felt displaced and confusing until they eventually found their place.The random streams of thought made it easy for me to lose focus and in the end I was exhausted from trying to piece everything together. I loved the content and underlying story within this complexly told story and found myself reading further to grasp a better understanding of the struggles this conflict creates and the faces of the people within it like Bassam and Rami who I found captivating. While the format wasn’t appealing to me and it was a lengthy read I came away with a greater respect for the strength of characters like these two fathers.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Apeirogon by Colum McCann is about a lot of things. It's primarily about two men - one Palestinian and one Israeli - who have lost their daughters to violence in the conflict between Israel and Palestine. After meeting in a parent group, they begin to understand one another. But, as mentioned, Apeirogon is also about other things: the migration of birds, politicians, photographs, etc.

I'm of 2 minds about this book. The blend of fiction and nonfiction - a common feature in McCann's work - is excellent. Compelling, heartfelt and emotional. The plot is engaging. However, the short sections, totaling to about 1,000 individual chapters was hard for me. They often shifted from topic and rarely were longer than a couple pages each. This made it hard for me to stay engaged when the topics shifted. It was a big swing and an interesting one, but ultimately didn't work as well as I'd hoped.

This is by a successful New York based author of 'Let The Great World Spin' and many other books. The definition of an apeirogon is "a polygon having an infinite number of sides " and this book does a wonderful job of portraying the many sides of the Israeli Palestine conflict. Inspired by the true story of Bassam Aramin who is Palestinian and Rami Elhanan who is Israeli. Both men lost daughters to the conflict and became members of Combatants For Peace. The story is told in a series of very short chapters and with lots of relevant and interesting side tangents included. This is my favourite kind of fiction - entertaining, educational and thought provoking.

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Apeirogon by Colum McCann is the contemporary –historical-fiction (I don’t know how else to describe it) of the path crossed by an Israeli man and a Palestinian man, both who lost young daughters. Mr. McCann is an award winning and bestselling author.

Rami Elhanan, an Israeli, and Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian, live their daily lives in a fractured area of the world. They both negotiate their respective daily challenges until the unthinkable happens when their daughters die violently. Rami’s daughter, Smadar, dies as the victim of a suicide vest. Bassam’s daughter, Abir, dies after she was shot in the head with a rubber bullet.
Smadar was 13.
Abir was 10.

Rami and Bassam learns of each other’s story and recognize the connection they have. While forging a strong friendship, they attempt to use their grief to try and get people to talk and solve problems instead of using violence.

Nothing I write can do justice to this book.

Apeirogon by Colum McCann is an extraordinary book, it’s different in narrative and structure, yet poignant and able to make its point. Mr. McCann uses the real-life tragedies of the Elhanan and Aramin families to review a history of this age old conflict, and the unexpected and innocent casualties it collects along the way.

Some parts of the book are not for the faint of heart, there are graphic descriptions of what happens when you stand next to a suicide bomber, get shot in the head with a rubber bullet, or detonate a suicide vest on your person. The narrative is not straight forward, but is symmetrical, you can read the book forwards or backwards and still get the story.

Mr. McCann tries to put the tragedies, not excuse them, in historical context along with tangents which are somewhat related to either the personal stories, or overall themes. In this way the author succeeds in putting in context events from the far, and recent, past and show us how sometime insignificant events might have large consequences, and people who pay a very personal price. The narrative is simple, but sends a strong message.

The tangents move around in time, past to present, creating an emotional effect which is a testament to the author’s immense talent. The author takes big chances with this book, and the payoff is tremendous.