Troubles of all sorts masquerading as progress. Violence of a malevolent force traversing generations. A famine of modern means, scalping hope from the bone like flees from tweed; oh, how catastrophic humanity lends itself to being. Through supple verse & hymns of classic veneration, what plagues a person most is what is unsaid, that which lives in the burrows of their heart. Yet, cataclysmic terror does not a good story make. A writer must pen from the putrid, must wander through the muck, reaching through the crisp pines for the hand of a stranger, asking them to listen, asking them to care.

What caught my eye & what held my gaze, was the cover art. Every little bit I found myself wandering back to the book’s page where I stared at the cover, eyes roaming over the listed genres & the character’s journey. Originally, I was conflicted about requesting this book. I have not hidden my reviews since I began writing them & so understand when an author or a Publishing House decides against the chance of fate; the coin toss that I might write 2,000 words of venom about their prized possession. There was, however, hope that I would receive a copy of this book.

I was hopeful because the main character appealed to me in a way I cannot quite explain. Anthony is in his middle age when we meet him & he is not altogether a man another person would trust, nor is he a character readers will learn to love.

In fact, I found that the hope I held festered in me, growing into anticipation; I needed to read this book. Now that the task has been completed, I wonder whether or not my hope was unfounded. I cannot say that all readers will appreciate the gentle tug of the plot, the ploy of the lost soul, nor the terrorism that is forgiven by those who miss the assailant. Regardless, I find myself wandering back down the dock, waiting to catch a glimpse of the waves that brought Anthony to the precipice of change.

In essence, this is a book about underwater cables. The main premise focuses on the Georges Lecointe ship & her mission to sail from South Africa to Ghana to fix a cable that has been severed. The narrative presents readers with a cast of characters, a crew of diverse men whose experiences assemble them on deck with a common goal. The story itself furrows brows with its slow pace & redundant reflections. A reader will be forgiven for wondering whether something of marvellous value will be presented as they flip one page after the other, in wait.

For readers who come upon this book hoping to find a mystery or longing to be met with a story that will riddle them with intrigue, McCann’s novel will not give them what they want. This is not a bad thing. I view this as an important distinction for what is written inside the bind is of value in its own right, though it does not cast a shadow to squander Pan’s. Rather, this book is an Odyssey the likes of which patient readers will appreciate for its secluded setting & raving madness.

Anthony, the main character, is a man who remembers the Troubles in Ireland; a man whose home was silent but for the nagging guilt that choked its inhabitants & the revulsive regret that capsized their beings. His decision to write a book about Conway came to him as he watched the man become a person led by a cause unheard by other ears.

For Anthony, bearing witness to a man with so much dialogue left unsaid, & so many days spent in intentional isolation, was curious. The two characters could be brothers or best friends, readers will note the similarities between the two as they pretend to forget from whence they came.

Here we too arrive at the precise moment of importance. This story revels in the pensiveness of belonging, & the turmoil of a place revolutionized by Church, State, & partisan. For Anthony, reminders of his childhood bring him a sickening nostalgia, whereas Conway acts as though he lives there still, in the moors near where his mother’s boat capsized.

It is intriguing to witness two characters mirror each other so profoundly. The relationship that they develop is built on their homeland. However, neither man seems eager to remind the other that they come from a land small in geography & suffocating in historical impacts.

I often found myself wondering if the men could have been true friends, had they met at another time, in another life. The story explores the downfall of Conway as he abandons the Georges Lecointe to pursue terrorism against the underground cables, leaving bombs attached which may—ideally—not impact or harm others but which could—quite probably—kill a person. By the end of the book, the reader has learnt that Conway was the perpetrator of his own demise. He died having dived to reach a cable off the Egyptian coast to break it apart, the blast leaving his carcass for the ocean life.

The author includes interesting tidbits about the logistics of underwater cables. The feeds drive our land-based communication & allow us to maintain some semblance of awareness about the world around us. What each character is left wondering is whether this is a positive reality for humanity.

Surely, at face value, our ability to communicate & transfer information with one another at such speed & with such frequency is a positive thing. The world has never before been so known to us & yet we are constantly faced with problems of our own making. What do we do about plastic pollution in the oceans & lakes? What happens when the glaciers melt? Are we supposed to know everything about the world or were we better off ignorant of our follies?

Anthony seems of the mind that awareness is a consequence of existence. In times of trouble, he mentally returns to things he has not thought about for years. This practice seems to soothe him as he wanders the world on the heels of great figures of change. Never does he question whether the words he writes should be penned or whether the words he says should be spoken.

In fact, Anthony, though a man of earnest intention, remains placated by the actions of others so much so that he has allowed his son to wander into the arms of others, rather than offering up his own. Will the reader fault him for this?

When exploring Anthony’s character one must wonder at the early days. A person is not who they are when we meet them without the moon’s company over many nights & sun’s warm watchful rays. Yet, few of us ever learn enough about one another to fully appreciate the journey of life.

While reading Anthony’s story, I felt conflicted. At times, he felt it in his ability to share more of himself than he would receive. In fact, he will never know the reader intimately, & will never have the chance to converse with the person consuming his story.

These chapters, more so these sections, were of particular importance because they lend themselves as explanations for both Anthony & Conway. Neither man will be fully transparent with anyone. I rather doubt there has come a time in their lives where they felt it was to their benefit to call to their experiences like art exhibited in a museum. I will not fault them for that.

Anthony’s small moments of vulnerability where he speaks truth to power, coining the tendrils of an un-beating tremor, will remind readers of the reality that besought the characters. There is certainly no need to excuse either man’s behaviour, they do not make excuses for their choices & I am rather inclined to believe that they would be distraught at the prospect of pity.

Yet, it is important to remember what sent Conway into the ocean’s depths & what led Anthony to isolate himself on a freight ship. Potentially, the gravity of their upbringing will be lost on the reader. Their need for a grand mystery of terror may supersede the calming tone of the truth; some people never escape the confines built inside them.

What I appreciated most about this novel was how simple it was. Men on the ocean repairing cables. Men on the ocean caught in the tidal waves of their burdens. That being said, I did find some moments annoying. Zenele was not a person who read to me as genuine. I suppose this is because everyone in the story felt so enamoured by her, that everything she said had a twang of falsehood.

Certainly, because the reader learns about her by proxy of Anthony, it is not surprising that I felt so conflicted about her character. However, as the story progressed, I felt that there were two truths. Zee was a person who adopted the role of other people, the roles built for make-believe, she voiced things that were not her words & was given praise for their delivery. I found her taunts about the guilt of humanity flawed & her deity-like essence pruned at the edges.

I will not pretend to have adored any character in this book, I rather doubt that was the author’s goal. However, the faults & flaws of the cast of primary & secondary characters felt authentic & though they may not have wanted to be transparent about themselves, they lived in truth, no matter the cost.

When I regard the characters for what they are & what they contributed to the story I welcome them all. The silent wandering legs aboard the ship, the silent prayers of longing for something different, the careful prodding for vulnerability faced with one another, & the reflection they saw in the mirror.

Ultimately, I enjoyed this story because it was enough of what it was to succeed at being what it hoped to become. The narrative studies the reality of access to information & the toll this has taken on humanity. Our inability to wander the grooves of awareness torments progress as we covet repetition redundantly.

The setting gathered a cloak of wet wallowing into the gore of each word, every memory a soggy state of affairs. The reader will choose whether they wish to regard this novel as the romanced tale of a man who wished no longer to know & forget the messages he could not send or, whether they wish to interpret the tale as a swan song of longing for an end, near & dear to their heart.

There will be no resolution that pleases the reader & their interpretations will vary. Should a person come across this story they will be met with the turbulent nature of the species & the journeys we undergo to be met with ourselves.

The numbing isolation of the truth can be met when the reader is prepared to settle on its existence. Coyly the author closes his story to fondle the airways he has yet to navigate; memories of a world he once knew. One day, the reader may come to find that Anthony, like many, has forgotten parts of himself in the past. Conway was perhaps attempting to set his countryman free from the rumbling nature of war that wiggled the doorhandle, cooing for entry into the green wide yonder of home.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, & Colum McCann for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Fascinating that so much of what keeps the internet running is buried under the sea. Chilling to stop and take a moment to really think about how much of our daily lives are so affected and so dependent on it . Even more fascinating, the human connections , the emotional ones , the difficult to understand ones , reflected in the complex characters and their relationships here . This novel is introspective and profound in reflecting connections made and connections broken, connections salvaged between people we want to understand , but don’t always. A short book , a slow burn , probably a slow read for me as most are at the moment.

Colum McCann is a versatile writer giving us stories so different from each other in storyline and characters, yet the quality of the writing is so consistently meticulous, with perfect descriptions, with beautiful prose in so many places and always deeply moving . Another book by Colum McCann, another reason why he is one of my all time favorite writers .

I received a copy of this from the publisher through NetGalley .

Anthony Fennell, an Irish journalist, is assigned to cover the underwater cables that carry the world’s information. Fennell’s journey brings him to the west coast of Africa, where he uncovers a story about the human labor behind the underwater cables that technological communication depends on. He meets a fellow Irishman, John Conway, the chief of mission on a cable repair ship. The mysterious Conway is a skilled engineer and a freediver capable of reaching extraordinary depths. He is also in love with a South African actress, Zanele, who must leave to go on her own literary adventure to London. When the ship is sent up the coast to repair a series of major underwater breaks, both men are forced to confront the most elemental questions of life, love, absence, belonging, and the perils of our severed connections.

Thank you so much to @netgalley, @randomhouse, and @colummccann.author for the ARC! McCann has been my favorite author since I read Let The Great World Spin, and I was so excited to see a new novel from him. I found the subject matter quite unique and a bit unusual to be the topic of a novel, but as a true master of storytelling that he is, McCann draw the reader in with carefully crafted characters we’re so achingly human that the reader cannot help but become fascinated. Underwater cables are definitely not something I have ever thought about before, but this book brought to the surface how fragile the lines of connection between humans truly can be. The plot was very exciting as the reader follows Fennell out to sea, but also left plenty of room for themes to shine through. If McCann writes it, I know that I will read it and love it, and Twist definitely held up to that mantra. Twist will release in the US in March 2025!

A multi-layered masterpiece by one of the great minds of our time.

“Twist” demonstrates Colum McCann’s capacity for astute observation and storytelling. This is a book to be savored and come back to.

As the novel opens, Anthony Ferrell is a down and out journalist given the assignment of covering a boat that repairs underwater cables that move information around the world. The initial twist is that nothing can happen until the break occurs. Ferrell is stuck waiting. While he is waiting, he meets John Conway, the Mission Officer he will travel with. Just once, Ferrell also meets Zanele, Conway’s captivating South African wife, who is leaving for Britain to direct and perform in Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.” The way McCann handles this period of waiting, plus the huge mud slides happening simultaneously in the Congo, called up for me Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”.

Finally, the break happens and Ferrell boards the repair boat. After another delay due to storms, they embark on their journey away from civilization and into the darkness that holds depths teeming with forms that are largely ignored, unknown, and feared. To know what lives at our depths is to enter a space outside humanity and often beyond our capacity to return.

The trajectory of the storyline is straight-forward and will carry the reader onto the boat and through the dangers and adventures of the high seas. A reader can choose to simply enjoy the story and follow along with Ferrell though the interminable waiting, the brushes with death and madness, and ultimately to the undeniable connection of it all. However, McCann’s power exists outside the simplicity of the story line. It is the complexity of his themes and allusions that make this book memorable. Every sentence in this book is deliberate. Every event resonates like sonar through the ocean.

“Twist” is a book worth analyzing and rereading. There is power in its depths. If a reader chooses to take the time, this book will change them. The questions are both complex and simple. What does it mean to repair? And what is worth repairing? Each of us must come to our own conclusions. I highly recommend spending enough time with “Twist” to begin the journey into the depths of our world and how they resonate in the depths of you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins/Random house for the ARC and the opportunity to provide this independent review.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review Colum McCann's 'Twist.'

My favourite Colum McCann novel (and one of my favourites of any author) is 'This Side of Brightness' a novel which features the sandhogs who built the Brooklyn Battery tunnel connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan. It immediately sprung to mind when reading 'Twist' since both novels deal with and use crucial physical infrastructure built to connect people places as devices to build stories around. You could also add TransAtlantic to that duo since it too uses engineering and infrastructure in a story of connecting people and places.

In 'Twist' a writer is trying to reconnect with his art by agreeing to write a non-fiction article for an online magazine about the work of fixing the cables that allow for the internet to function and that run along the bottom of the world's oceans, connecting continents and people. He manages to set sail with the crew of a ship which works to fix cables when they break, thus restoring digital connections. The other main character is the man who runs the repair operations on the ship and they develop an uneasy relationship which extends to their family and friends/acquaintances. Another connection that is trying to be repaired is that between the writer and his son.

It's hard to say too much more without spoiling the story but it takes a sharp turn, going from an examination of the physical infrastructure of the world's digital connections and the relationships that form during it to more of a mystery and international thriller but, throughout, the theme of connections, broken connections, and the effort to repair them is carried on.

As he did with 'This Side of Brightness' and 'TransAtlantic' McCann goes into the technological, engineering, and mechanical feats involved with these deep-water cables without it becoming dry (no pun intended) and weaves the stories of his human characters in around the hardware as if it too was a character.

One tiny facet of this book that I found very funny is that the writer character in the book disparages an Irish author he encounters at an event in London and refers to him wearing a thin purple scarf even in the heat. That affectation is, in fact, one that McCann himself indulges in! Kudos to him for poking fun at himself. :)

Really wonderful writing.

Bravo.

This is a great example of an engaging story beautifully told by a writer with a limitless curiosity for unusual subjects. In other words, a masterwork. Colum McCann is one of those writers whose work I'll choose no matter what the subject since his poetic style is inimitable and his choice of material always interesting and informative. Here we have a down on his luck freelance writer from Dublin given the assignment of doing a piece on a ship tasked with reparation of the fiber optic tubes that carry the world's information on the ocean floor. Our narrator finds himself intrigued by the master of the crew, a diving expert with a story of his own. An encounter that changes the narrator's life. In other words, this is one of those books that makes me glad I love to read.

Twist by Colum McCann is an intense, hypnotic novel about the repair crew for underwater cables and a journalist who embeds with them to write an article about their work. The narrative explores a variety of dichotomies: destruction & repair, confinement & expansiveness, truth & fiction. The cables connect all parts of the world via the internet yet are vulnerable to damage on the seabed due to both natural and man-made disasters. McCann describes the tedious, painstaking work of identifying the site of the disruption and then bringing the cable to the surface for repair. The journalist seeking to chronicle this process has some damage of his own – his writing career is stalled; he is estranged from his only child; and he drinks too much. Over the course of the novel both cables and their chronicler are mended. Yet the twist of the title refers not only to the fiber optic cable but to the plot of the book because the chief of the repair crew disappears from the ship and takes up a separate and opposite agenda. This is yet another dichotomy that McCann exploits and explores in fluid, mesmerizing language in this very timely book

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the eARC in exchange for this review.

Most digital-age information is carried in cables lying within the depths of the sea, and like anything else, there are times when they must be repaired. McCann uses this creative setting to give us a deep-dive into character development through three primary characters: Anthony, a journalist tasked with writing about these repairs; John (but is that his real name?), who is chief of the repair operations; and Zanele, John’s South-African actress girlfriend. McCann is a fluid and vivid writer who can certainly turn a phrase, and he even throws in some missing-person intrigue. A satisfying read!

"Let The Great World Spin" has been one of my top 5 favorite novels since reading it many years ago, so I knew that Colum McCann's "Twist" had some pretty big shoes to fill! Though I can't say that it rates the 5+ stars that his earlier novel did for me, I definitely was once again drawn into the author's descriptive and elegant prose, as well as the details regarding undersea fiber optic internet cables. Not only was I enthralled to be learning something about an information highway I literally had never heard of previously, but the unique characters and the varying roles they played in the repairs of these serious cable breaks, as well as the effect those had on technology today, was fascinating.
This is not a book I normally would have chosen to read just based on the synopsis. It was the author's name that drew me in, and I'm so glad I gave this book a chance. I look forward to recommending it in March of 2025!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the digital advance reading copy!

When an alcoholic journalist with writer’s block takes an assignment to cover the little known, but critical work of underwater divers who repair the cables that transport 90% of the data in the world wide internet traffic, he meets and becomes fascinated with the enigmatic leader of the repair crew. This is a spare, beautifully constructed character study with just enough mystery to keep the pages turning. McCann’s prose is masterfull as usual.

I enjoyed this book so much ….
….treasured my own intimacy with it so much, I’d like to preserve the experience for myself. At the same time, I hope everyone in the world loves it as much as me.
It took me three weeks to finish.
It’s only 256 pages long.
It ‘could’ be read in a day or two …..but I genuinely was in awe.
For several days I got deeply (ha!,no pun intended), interested to learn more - understand more free-diving, about underwater cables, fiber optic technology, how they are made…how they work, how a ship uses a plow to create a trough in the ocean floor ….and the ways it gets buried in the sand by underwater currents, etc.
I nagged my husband — wanting him to feed answers to all my questions. He helped… but ultimately I took a few days to do my own google research. I had a great time!

Thank you Colum! You rocked my world with *Twist*. (perfect title). You inspired me, taught me, and allowed me to reflect about things that are most important to me: people and our relationships ….the life of love and struggles we share alone and together. This is now my new favorite book by Colum McCann.

“Twist” ‘is complete by itself ….nobody needs to visit google or nag your spouse with technological questions.
But, isn’t it a treat when ‘sometimes’ a book excites us, intrigues us, to want to learn more?
Sentence after sentence, paragraph after paragraph—with elements of the heart, fractured stories weaved together, wonderful and haunting layered heart-pounding adventures- mysteries with the absorbing complex characters — *Twist* is wonderful …brilliant….with extraordinary depth and beauty.

More tidbits ….
In January 2019, Anthony Fennell, had just turned forty-eight. He boarded the Georges Lecointe, a cable repair vessel. As a struggling novelist and occasional playwright, he felt a relief to step away from the “burden of invention” onto a ship that would take him out to the west coast of Africa, a place he’d never been before. (descriptions as a newbie arriving in South Africa were very visual- I felt as if I was there).
“The city’s beauty stung my lungs, but its adjacent poverty pierced me too”.
Anthony thought he would spend a few weeks on a ship, then return to Dublin and write a long form journalistic-piece.
It wasn’t exactly all that simple.

Georges Levointe- was one of the busiest cable repair vessels in the world…..a telecommunications company in Brussels.
It held the record for the number of deep sea jobs in the Atlantic ocean.
The Congo River had been flooded for weeks. The entire Congo Basin was saturated.
The spill triggered mudslides.
Entire villages were washed away in the storms.
Pages of descriptions were heartbreaking/devastating!
Given the recent tragedy of Hurricane Helene .. and other more recent destructions from severe natural disasters, it was painfully-real to absorb this daunting history.

A little about the characters…and a love story of sorts….
Anthony Fennell (great Irish protagonist by the way), connects with John Conway: (commander on a cable repair ship), whose partner was Zanele.(an actress heading off to London to be in a theater production). She was bringing her young twins, Thami and Imka with her. Conway was staying back in Africa….and would be heading out to sea.
Conway wanted Anthony to write an article about Zanele.
“He was so in love with her that he wanted people to see her, meet her, talk with her, listen to her, be in her presence”.
Anthony was convinced that Conway and Zanele loved each other …. but it seemed like there were cracks in their relationship.

I won’t say much more ….but could. (lol) …
Geee….I could never write a book. It’s hard enough trying to write a review….
There is much to enjoy: characters with dreadlocks or blue hair. A character with seashell tattoos on her wrists, grave-markers, spectacular things in the ocean, background history, regrets, memories, promises, lies, mystery, head-pounding scary scenes, and many thought-provoking moments.

“You can ache for years and not even know you’ve been aching. The ache has gone so deep that it seems to come from another life, one not even remembered anymore. Then, when it spins back up in your mind, you can choose to shove it back down into the territory of the deeper ache, or you can try to coax it into some sort of meaning”.

Even the acknowledgments were beautiful!

Colum McCann . . .
…An internationally best selling author….
….A member of The American Academy of Arts And Letters.
….A member of The Irish association of artists Aosdana. (people who have produced a distinguished body of work of genuine originality).
….etc…. many other worthy awards!!!
….Colum McCann lives with his family in New York.

I love this book!
I love Colum McCann’s writing!!!

Thank you …… soooo much!!!

My third read by the author. Can't quite get to the five-stars with him, though this one comes close.
Twist is a story of a diver and underwater cable repairman who goes rogue and a reporter who tries to figure out what happened.
It's a fairly straight-forward, simple plot because this novel is about the trees rather than the forest. McCann spends the entire time zooming in instead of out, so that you get the most minute details of the characters' lives and activities, which can be interesting and very immersive but also somewhat exhausting.
The narrative is very Gatsby-esque in style, with the main character, a rather unexciting reporter, orbiting a much-more exciting and unknowable Conway, the mystery man. And for all that orbiting and speculation, no matter how detailed, Conway remains largely just that - a mystery. A bit frustratingly so, but also a great reminder that in real life, it's very difficult and sometimes impossible to truly know another person.
Knowing its strengths and shortcomings, the novel smartly keeps it brief at just 256 pages.
The real star here is the beauty of language. McCann's writing is devastatingly beautiful, and it alone makes this a worthy read. Thanks Netgalley.

There were moments of profound beauty in this novel. I can't tell you what it means to me and I won't tell you about the story. Go on. Find out.

Yet another winner from Colum. Complex story and characters, with a bit of mystery thrown in. About the ties that bind us together, and sometimes tear us apart.

There is no doubt McCann can write, it’s lush and vivid and this book had me highlighting line after line. My issue lies in the storytelling. This book started off really strong I was excited to read about the underwater cables and how reliant we are on them for connecting us globally, this was a totally fresh and new concept to me, and I thought we were headed into a story about how humans and technology have evolved. Unfortunately this story took a bit of a hard pivot half way through and became about a man name Conway and a series of incidences and the journalist, Anthony, our narrator who seeks to understand the why. This didn’t interest me and I never felt like we got any really good or interesting answers or a real deep sense of these characters and I finished it with a bit of harumph feeling.

I have always wanted to read this author. His prose is quite lush and I think I might like it, but my brain just can't focus on it at the moment. I may try again before the pub date.

When you open a book by a true literary artist, you remember immediately how beautiful literature reads. Almost like slipping into the most expensive, highest thread count sheets, Colum McCann has mesmerized us with a story that no one had thought to explore. A journalist looking for inspiration and desperate enough to travel on a ship sent to repair fiberoptic cables undersea.

Anthony Fennell, the Irish journalist travels to South Africa to meet the men who are pirate-like in their lifestyle. He is able to catch a ride on a shpw and follows a captain-like man for his article. What he learns, leads us to what we are all waiting for - the twist.

Grab this exquisitely wrought book, and travel with Fennell to a place that can control what we are all addicted too - information.

#randomhouse #twist #colummccann

This was an interesting book overall, but it was still pretty dry. It was pretty technical about the work the people were doing, so that was a bit too focused on the wrong things. I think the beginning started off strong, the middle was so dull, and then the ending was picking up pace again which was good.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this complimentary ARC in exchange for an honest review!!

This was a strong story and enjoyed the concept and how the plot was told. The characters felt like this was their story that needed to be told and enjoyed how they worked in this universe. Colum McCann has a great writing style and it worked with the genre.

This was quite the interesting read. It started off pretty captivating but somewhere in the middle it seems to drag on. The last 20% or so picked up again and kept me engaged through the end. The writing style is pretty unique. At one point, there’s a single sentence that stretches over nearly 3 pages on my kindle. I’d be interested to read more works from this author but I know to pace myself to avoid feeling underwhelmed.