We are connected to places, events and people by speaking, writing and, in today’s world, by technology. We get our news (real of fake), ideas, facts, connections to family, friend and colleagues all over the world. What would happen if our access to the Internet was lost?

Anthony Fennell, an alcoholic Irish journalist and playwright is assigned to write an article on repairing underwater fiber optic cables. He relishes the idea of escape (why) and isolating himself. He must go to Africa, meet John Conway, an Irish free diver, and sail with him as he leads his team in finding and repairing breaks. Meeting John, he gets to meet his beautiful, talented African actress wife. Anthony crushes on Zanele, and privately decides he wants to write John’s story: but John will not go on record. What secrets may he be harboring?

Zanele moves on and John disconnects, isolating himself emotionally from Anthony and the crew. This connect/disconnect dichotomy, unresolved personal issues, the effects of technology on our lives and secrets create a book of twists and turns set mainly on a vast ocean.

The author chose Anthony as his narrator. How reliable, honest or trustworthy is left to the reader. His character development of Anthony and John were fully realized. The tempo slowed in relation to the action. When there was a lag before a cable break was called in, the text slowed with it; when the action picked up so did the pace. The underlying themes made this work important, not necessarily the plot. It kept the reader engaged.

Twist earned my rating of three stars only because of the fine writing of Colum McCann. The topic and the story did not pique my interest at all, but i kept reading because it was, after all, Colum McCann. Anthony Fennell is a journalist and writer from Ireland. He has had a long-standing history of alcohol and drug abuse. His agent convinces him to go to South Africa and write about the people and the boat who patrol the waters where there is a danger of underwater internet cables being damaged and needing repair. On board a Belgian ship, he meets its captain, Conway and by the by, Conway's partner, Zenele a talented actress who grew up in the Townships

There is more than you ever want to know about cable construction, damage and repair. You may become educated about free diving. There are some interesting literary references to Heart of Darkness and the film made from it. I'm afraid I failed to see the connections to this story. And maybe that's just me, but I found it difficult to become immersed in Twist and i did not enjoy reading the novel.

thanks to Net Galley and Random House for the ARC copy to read and review. The opinions are my own.

Unfortunately I had to DNF at 25% in.

The writing style was not for me at all and it wasn't what I expected it to be from the synopsis.

"Everything gets fixed, and we all stay broken."

This novel is thought-provoking, memorable, and beautifully written.

Twist is written in the style of a memoir, from the point of view of a writer who is going through some rough times in his personal life. In this narrative, Anthony Fennell is working as a free lance journalist, joining a crew at sea who are repairing underwater cables that ensure Internet usage for large portions of the world. There is a strong metaphor running through this story about how this long trip helps Fennell to repair himself, as he watches the crew repair deeply buried cables.

Before and during this voyage, Fennell develops an interesting relationship with the man in charge of the exhibition, John Conway. This man is at the heart of this story, an enigma who keeps Fennell focused outside of himself and searching for answers to the mystery surrounding Conway's identity and motives.

One aspect I found fascinating about this story was free diving, and the depths that some people can go by training their bodies, using no scuba gear.

Twist is indeed a deep novel, no pun intended, and I am very glad that I had the chance to read this. Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for providing me with this experience in exchange for an honest review.

Colum McCann is a beautiful writer. I just wish his talent were put to better use here. For me, the writing, wonderful as it is, got in the way of the story. I felt like I couldn’t see the forest for the trees, and it was a bit of a struggle to get through the book. All that being said, I do think the book is worth reading. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The writing is beautiful. The story--for me, it was hard to decipher, to figure out which bits were important and which were not, making it a bit of a struggle to get through the book.

I went into this title blindly, and I did enjoy the writing style quite much. The subject matter was interesting but at times dragged out on the technical stuff having to do with the underwater tubes and how they work, I didnt care much for the characters. I found them all to be slightly boring most of the book and I had A hard time connecting with any of them, I also found some of the story hard to follow as it shifted scenes jarringly. I’d give this author another shot based on the wiring style. Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy.

This is a fascinating novel placed in unusual settings and situations. The drama unfolds on both the large and small scale, with characters that are vivid. An enjoyable and satisfying read that I know will appeal to a wide swath of library patrons.

This book is not for everyone and I won't be able to do it justice. A complex, layered, thought-provoking beautifully written novel.

The setting: Anthony Fennell, the narrator, an Irish journalist and playwright, is assigned to cover the story of the fiber-optic underwater cables [and their repair] that carry the world’s information. The repair company, headquartered in Brussels, sends him to the west coast of Africa, where he meets a fellow Irishman, John Conway, the chief of mission on the cable repair ship. The mysterious Conway is a skilled engineer and a freediver who lives with a South African actress, Zanele/Zee and her two children. Zanele leaves with her children to act in a play in London and Conway sets out for a repair. The crew members, distinct and from various countries and diverse cultures, all play a role.

Fennell a [recovering] alcoholic struggles with himself, his life, his path. Conway too has his own struggles. Are they friends? Accomplices? Enemies? Both have faults and flaws. They have a complex relationship because of the boundaries of their assignments.

Much takes place on the ship the George Lecointe, but the last part of the book/mystery is on land--both in Africa and England.
I much learned about cables in the sea and communications and underwater pollution and the beauty of the ocean.

There is a "twist" and drama; and mystery that I had not anticipated. The paradox of connectedness/connectivity and the disconnect and [emotional] isolation.

I found it strange that this is the second forthcoming [new] book in a row where the author's note warns of autocracy! And, of the last three books I read; this is the second that mentions tikkun olam--repairing the world/advocating social justice.

New words: [noted only a few]
takotsubo--broken heart syndrome/stressor of heart muscles
clepsydra--ancient time measuring device worked by flow of water
rutilant--having a reddish glow

Excellent description: corduroy of moving waves

I found this book novel, original, inventive and deep [no pun intended for the depth of water]. And a mystery. Not for everyone. Sometimes a bit bored with the descriptions of the cables and science, which I nonetheless found informative.

Recommend; especially if you like/appreciate McCann.

4.5 stars. This is a creative novel about an obscure topic. I wouldn’t expect anything different from this author. His writing is poetic yet very readable for those of us who don’t read poetry. His descriptions are magical. There are so many memorable quotes. Here are just a couple of them

“Between fact and fiction lie memory and imagination”

“Back then I didn’t bank the happiness. I wish now that I had.”

“..a pessimist of intellect, an optimist of will”

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an early release in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I was, at times, dazzled by this book, for the richness of its central symbol, the cable, and for the brilliance of some of its scenes on and below the ocean. At others, i found - not for the first time - the author’s self-consciousness, the poetic stretches, and overworking putting a strain on those great qualities. What’s undeniable is the freshness of the vision and the excellence of the metaphors. McCann can conceive and write like an angel. For the excesses I will, this time, certainly, forgive him.

I received a free DRC of this book through Netgalley. It's interesting to base a book on the communication cables that link our messages at the bottom of the ocean floor because it's not something that many people stop to think about. The author has a very poetic way of using words that sometimes I just had to stop and admire their word usage. The story itself is compelling and hauntingly beautiful with some tragedy thrown in to enliven the book. It works very well together.

Twister by Colum McCann is a story about breaks and repairs on fiber optic wires that lay way down on the ocean floor. These wires are the product of our digital age. They carry all our stories, texts, emails, and work along these wires to parts all over the world. When there is a break in the wire, it needs to be repaired. There are people that spend days, sometimes weeks or months on a boat in the waters to find and make these repairs.

There is a lot of technical in the store as to how these breaks are located along with finding and repairing them. Fennell is a journalist who is commissioned to write about this. Conway is the engineer on the boat that sets out to find and make the repairs. There is much depth included in the story about these two men and their lives.

For someone interested in this type of story, it is well written and might keep you interested. For me it was totally different that what I would normally read so at times I did find a lot of it hard to get through. I was also totally confused about why Fennell was so obsessed with Conway and his life. Both men have pasts that are plagued with secrets which has probably caused them to be the way they are.

Thank you Net Galley for giving me the opportunity to read this advance readers copy.

“Twist” by Colum McCann explores our global communications cables, their infrastructure throughout our oceans, and the humans who maintain and repair them. The story is told by an Irish journalist who is tasked to write the controversial story of the worldwide fiber optic network. He joins the crew of a repair vessel and before boarding meets the deeply flawed head of the repair operation and his lover who is about to become a highly successful actress. The book delves deeply into these damaged people as well as the damage the technology may be having on our world. The writing style is exceptional and the concept interesting, but i just couldn’t fully engage with the topic.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for- Random House for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of "Twist" by Colum McCann. This book was unlike anything I've read previously. I was drawn in by the summary and very interested in learning more about the world of the cables that lie at the bottom of the ocean which connect us to the internet and each other. These lines span the globe and, if severed at sea, require repair by highly-trained technicians aboard oceanliners. Our narrator is an honest and flawed journalist who gets the opportunity to board one of these ships and accompany the crew as it goes out for a repair on an underwater line off the coast of Africa. Without giving too much away, the book follows as the journalist bides his time at sea and attempts to befriend (or perhaps better said, uncover the secrets of) the chief mission officer. The descriptions in the book were truly otherworldly and really set the scene. For example, the description of being out at sea and feeling trapped on the ship; the feeling of seasickness; these were all so real I felt at times like I was living them. A very interesting and well-written novel.

In Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin, Philippe Petit walks between the Twin Towers of the New York World Trade Center a quarter mile above ground on a cable three quarters of an inch wide. In his novel, Twist, McCann returns to a cable–the width of this cable, an inch and a half wide, snakes across the ocean floor, carrying electronic data, the same type of data that travels from cell towers on land. The underwater cable occasionally breaks. Men like Conway board ships with crews to repair broken cable. At the depth of two miles, Conway and his crew must locate and repair a broken cable at the bottom of a dark underwater canyon. To locate the break, the crew must lower a grapnel to the bottom of the canyon and troll the ocean floor from aboard ship until the grapnel hooks onto the cable, pull the severed cable up to the ship and drop the grapnel again into the water for the other end of the cable, a process taking anywhere from several hours to several months. The cable must be rejoined with surgical precision before the cable can be lowered back into the water.

Traveling along with Conway and crew, is Fennell, a playwright, between plays, estranged from his wife and son, drinking heavily, commiserating his life’s failures, on assignment from his publisher to write something about Conway. A creative writer, his excursion as a literary suggestive voyage isn’t lost on him, he is aware of the similarities to Melville’s Ishmael and the protagonist from Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

Meeting Conway, a fellow Irishman, in South Africa, the novelist turned biographer is introduced to Conway’s South African Black wife, a stage actress, and her children. The severed line between Fennell and his family is replaced as his thoughts follow the line of Conway’s marital situation, putting the writer in the position of Nick Carraway from Fitzgerald’s Gatsby.

Given the great world of nature and the work humans have wrought on the planet, stories of the connection are awesome and awe inspiring. This is a good story, not McCann’s best, but good. The metaphor is reversed. His symbol is intact, hopefully, one he’ll revisit it again in the future.

Thank you to the publisher, Random House and NetGalley for an Advanced Reader Copy.

I like this, but I always felt like I was just missing some underlying mystical detail that would link everything together. Clearly the author is talented, weaving the disparate pieces of the story into one. The undersea work was quite interesting, something I'd never really thought about, and the cables themselves, a real marvel.

Recommended. Would I read more from the author? Yes.

I received a complimentary copy of the novel from the publisher and NetGalley, and my review is being left freely.

This is a novel about how information travels, and on some level, about how we interpret and analyze information. The protagonist spends the majority of the novel trying - and ultimately failing - to gather information and decode an enigmatic man named Conway. For the protagonist, Conway is a puzzle to be solved. Unfortunately for me, Conway’s background or motivations did not interest me. He didn’t leap off the page as a mystery to unfurl for me, and therefore the plot dragged.

In the end, the protagonist and his white whale Conway were both unlikeable. There’s some complicated language when the protagonist, a European, describes South Africa and Ghana - two places I’ve had the extreme pleasure to live and experience. The pacing of the novel is somewhat irregular, as Part Four reads very differently to Parts One through Three.

I picked up this book on the merit of McCann’s prose, which is always strong. I also love thinking about the ocean in new ways, so I appreciated this as an interesting contrast to Julia Armfield’s “Our Wives Under the Sea,” which I had read recently.

Colum McCann's Apeirogon is one of the most memorable books I've read in the past several years, so I was delighted to be invited to read an ARC of his forthcoming novel, Twist. In three sections, we learn about an experience the narrator of the book, Irish writer Anthony Fennell, has had and his struggles to make sense of it. In the first, he travels to South Africa after he learns about the crews that repair the undersea cables that enable transcontinental communication and proposes an article about one of them. He is connected with John Conway, a fellow Irishman who is chief of mission for a repair ship, and through Conway meets his partner, Zanele, an up-and-coming South African actress. In the second part, the two men get on board the boat to embark on a repair, and Fennell learns about the hierarchy of the ship and the process of the repair. But something dramatic and unexpected happens at the end of the mission, and in the third part of the book, Fennell grapples with making sense of what happened then and afterward. I thought the writing in the book was spectacular and the characters intriguing, but I also felt a little at a loss for why the story was being told. There is, of course, some pretty big symbolism in the need to repair connections, but I also felt that there were a lot of things that weren't explained.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in return for an honest review. This book will be published March 25, 2025.

Twist

This is a tricky one to review. While I loved this beautiful written character study, I’m not sure a summary of the plot will do the book justice or make it sound half as engaging as it actually is.

Anthony, a middle aged novelist working as a journalist, accepts an assignment to travel to Africa to write an article on underwater cables. Here, he meets Conway, a fellow Irishman, and his partner, Zanele and feels instantly drawn to them and into their world. The plot centers on our world’s reliance on these underwater cables (side note- I’m embarrased by how little I knew and understood about the role of underwater cables and found myself taking breaks from reading to research them) but the novel is really a character study, with profound musings on society and humanity. Anthony’s time with Conway and Zanele affect him deeply and challenge the way he views himself and the world.

Like McCann’s previous novels, Twist is filled with gorgeous, lyrical language and descriptive, transportive settings. Highly recommend!! Special thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read and review this ARC.