“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.

This. Is an interesting book that takes place off the west coast of Africa on a boat that repairs the ocean cables that
provide our communication services, and the people on the crew, and the writer looking for a story.. The human touch
drives the story that will keeps us interested from beginning to end. I recommend this book to fans of the Author,
who wrote some wonderful , thought provoking stories.
My thanks to Random House via NetGalley for the download of this book for review purposes.

I’ve only read one other book by Colum McCann, Apeirogon, which I loved (and would have gladly voted for its nomination for the Booker Prize that year). Naturally, I was eager to read Twist, his latest work. While this novel is a very different story, it carries the same emotional depth as Apeirogon.

My only real “criticism” (though not a true complaint) is that I wish it had been longer—I enjoyed the characters so much that I would have loved to spend more time with the two main protagonists, Anthony Fennell and John Conway. That said, McCann does a remarkable job bringing all the characters to life, skillfully weaving in their difficult and painful pasts.

The novel also explores the theme of the ocean and how modern society has polluted and damaged it. McCann masterfully draws a parallel between the depths of the ocean and the depths of human emotion—both are messy, filled with remnants of our existence, both beautiful and tragic.

I believe this novel has the potential to be another Booker Prize contender, and I’m happy to recommend it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for providing this advance copy for me to enjoy.

Colum McCann’s Twist is an exploration of connectivity—both technological and human—written with his signature poetic prose. Anthony Fennel is an Irish journalist tasked with covering the vast network of underwater cables that carry the world’s information. Fennell’s assignment leads him to the South African coast were he encounters John Conway, a skilled engineer and freediver, and Zanele, a South African actress on the brink of her own artistic and personal transformation. A Congo River flood causes breeches in the underground cables off the African coast, and the ship Georges Lecointe sets out for repairs with Fennell, Conway and crew on board.

Twist delves into the fragile infrastructure—both physical and personal—that keeps lives intact. The novel’s strength lies in its ability to merge the vast and the intimate: the unknowable depths of the ocean, the invisible threads of global communication, and the deeply personal struggles of its characters. McCann’s prose is fluid, his descriptions evocative and immersive. The novel thrives in its moments of quiet revelation, where themes of exile, love, and the weight of modern existence come to the surface. If there’s a drawback, it’s that Twist can sometimes feel elusive, its fragmented storytelling requiring patience. Because Fennell and Conway both wrestle with things internally, I felt a distance from these main characters and that made it difficult to get to know them. McCann's writing is lovely but I wanted more from the characters than their brokenness. Three and a half stars rounded up because of all I learned about undersea cables, how reliant we all are on them, and how they get repaired.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with a copy of this book. It will be published on March 25, 2025.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

Just could not get into it. I read it, but didn't fully digest. I think the subject matter was just not of interest to me.

Sorry three stars.

Others probably will love.

Every sentence is so beautifully crafted. There is no one else out there writing like this.
This is a slow character study so it takes time to read and digest but there is so much to this book. Anthony is a journalist and Irish playwright writing about the underwater cables that carry the fiber optics for the internet and the world’s information. He goes out on a boat with a diver named Conway who repairs the cables. He has a background and a story that gets slowly revealed. Anthony also meets Conways love interest Zanele. Out at sea, the characters battle with the themes of love and fracture, repair and connection and a twist in the story is revealed.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Literary Fiction

I have two books by Colum McCann on my wishlist. Both Apeirogon and TransAtlantic have been on my wishlist for quite some time. When I had the chance to get a preapproved copy of his latest novel, “Twist,” I jumped at the opportunity and decided to explore his newer work, and I’m glad I did.

Although it doesn’t explicitly state in the synopsis, Twist is a modern reimagining of The Great Gatsby. The story follows an Irish journalist and playwright, Thomas Fennell, who is assigned to cover the underwater internet cables, their maintenance, and recovery. During his journey, he meets engineer John Conway and his love interest, Zanele, a South African actress.

The story delves into the narrator’s relationship with those two characters, as well as many more complex themes of our time that are well contrasted when compared. For instance, it examines the ironic dilemma of how the fiber-optic cables under the sea serve to bring people closer together, yet in reality, individuals are becoming emotionally distant.

Another similarity between this book and The Great Gatsby is that the narrator doesn’t feel reliable enough. He didn’t seem deceivable to me or anything like that, but as I progressed through the story, I could sense that he was withholding information, like not telling the other characters that he had a son.

The plot itself is not the strongest aspect of this book because the story relies more on character development. The book has a slow pace, and I understand the reason for this deliberate choice. Personally, both the plot and theme are outside my usual reading comfort zone. However, it is the excellent writing, with its lyrical and thoughtful prose, that elevated this book for me. I truly enjoyed the author’s poetic writing style and look forward to reading more of his works.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.

A wonderful, unique look at the turbulence of modern life: the isolation, the connection, the love that binds us all.

I only knocked a point off because sometimes the lyricism of the prose can weigh down the melody of the sentences when the analogies/metaphors are unclear. I found that it would grind the flow of reading to a halt while I digested what the author was trying to elucidate.

This ARC was provided by the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review.

I haven't read anything by McCann that I didn't like. He's always a serious writer, but his character development is second to none. I learn so much from reading his books, even though they're sometimes difficult to read.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House for an advance copy of this novel that deals with the fragile connections that link us all, how easily these can be severed, marooning us from the world, and maybe unwinding what we need most to make us hang on.

We live in a time of wonders, where I can call a person while walking down the street, share a picture, a joke, an encouraging word and more. While many think this goes through the air, very few of this does, as the cost would be quite exorbitant. Instead we count on a vast network of cables, running under the sea, like the old telegram lines that used to run over 100 years before. In these cables run every social media statement, every tweet, every swipe left and right, all over the globe. These cables, like ourselves, can break for a variety of reasons. Man-made troubles, like trawlers, or anchor chains, even sabotage can cut a cable, slowing the system, and in some places destroying the system that we have come used to trusting to run our lives. Mother Nature can cause earthquakes, shifting earth, water and cables, again breaking them apart. Causing them to unwind, like a human being under too much pressure. These need to be repaired, rewound and brought together, but cable is sometimes easier to fix than a human, and a human that is unwrapping can be the most destructive force on Earth. Twist is the latest novel by award-winning author Colm McCann, telling a story about the modern technology we count on to live, and a story as old as time about the costs of falling apart.

Anthony Fennell is an Irish writer, a sort of journalist, occasional playwright and in his heart a failure at all of this. Fennell is drinking too much, can't figure out how to reconnect with his son, and generally feels lost in the world. Fennell is approached by a magazine with an offer to write about a company that fixes the many cables that run underwater connecting most of the world by computers. Fennell would be posted to a ship that fixes these breaks, breaks which happen quite abit. Fennell travels to South Africa, to await a break, and meets John Conway, a fellow Irish man who is seems has made a great life in South Africa. Conway is Chief of Mission, finding and leading the repair on the cables. Conway is also a freediver able to travel to great depths with oxygen tanks. A break puts the African continent at risk for problems, and Fennell and Conway travel by boat to repair what turns out to be two breaks. As the ship sails Fennell spends more time with Conway and comes to realize there is much more to this man than he thinks, and that undersea cables are not the only thing that can break.

A remarkable book. A book that goes in so many different places one is impressed that any author could keep track, but McCann makes it look easy. Not only is the story well-plotted and told, the writing is simply beautiful. There are more remarkable lines here than in any of the last 70 books I have read. The book took me so long to read as I kept reading passages over and over, or writing these passages down. The characters are well-developed and seem so real. I'm not sure how much McCann drew on his own life for Fennell, but I feel like I have known Fennell all my life. Or at least how he thinks of the world, and his place in it. The book like I said twists in different directions, but McCann keeps everything close, and no matter where it goes, McCann gets the reader there. What a phenomenal journey it is.

I loved the story, the writing, and the ideas. I really can't type enough about it. I can't wait to read it again. I have long been a fan, but I think this one might be McCann's best. Until his next one. Perfect for new readers, and one I will be recommending quite a bit.

I found this book most interesting especially since in the past few months the news has reported underwater cables in the ocean have been sabotaged and needed repair. I guess I had never really thought there were specific teams deployed throughout the world to go fix them. This book explains the process of how they are repaired along with how they could be sabotaged.

Otherwise, this one does have a few twists with the characters, Anthony Fennell, the Irish journalist and John Conway, the fixer both had a story to tell. It was a quick read and quite enjoyable.

I received an ARC from Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for my unbiased review. Comes in with four stars.

As McCann writes, "The mind begs for logic but gets the actual world." This is one of those amazing novels that hooks you from the beginning as you have no idea where it's going or what will happen, but you know it's fascinating from the outset as the writing is lyrical and so lovely that you can't stop reading! Journalist Anthony goes to Cape Town to repair underwater cables and meets the enigma that is John Conway. Anthony is working on an article called "No Rest For the Wired" about corporations that control the cables. But what he discovers is much more than just corporate greed!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Colum McCann is what I have been looking for in my reading. He writes in poetic prose and his sentences have deep meaning. Absolutely loved this book. And, I learned about the internet technology and the underwater life. When a fiction book can also educate you about something it makes the book more fascinating. This story is very introspective and reflects the connections made through technology and between people. This will be in my top ten of the year!

Anthony Fennell is an Irish journalist and is assigned to cover the underwater cables that carry the world's information. He meets John Conway, the chief of mission on a cable repair ship. Conway is an engineer and a freediver that can go to incredible depths. Conway is in love with Zanele, who is a South African actress. Conway is a mystery to Anthony. Anthony wants to figure him out. At sea Anthony begins to grapple with his life and his son that he has not reached out to. Conway seems to also be wrestling with emotional strife especially with Zanele.

This was a slow burn and I enjoyed it from the very first page. I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend this book. I look forward to more books by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for this ARC.

Colum McCann is firmly one of my favorite authors - his writing is both lyrical and melodic. After Apeirogon, which was so tragically beautiful, I was eager to read this one.

Twist is a story about connections - forged, broken, sabotaged, tenuous, strong, hidden, and overt - both in the literal and figurative senses. Twist is told from the imperfect point of view of Irish journalist Anthony Fennell, who is assigned an in-depth feature on a ship and its crew charged with repairing the cables that connect the world’s communications via the ocean floor, a mind-blowing, extraordinary feat I knew nothing about heading into this book. The focus of Fennell’s interest lies with John Conway, the chief of mission, who heads the repairs off the coast of South Africa.

Conway is a worldly man — veteran, traveler, experienced free diver — who is supremely fascinating and equally elusive. He is in a long-term on-again-off-again relationship with Zanele, a beautiful actress who is captivating while also frustratingly and intentionally evasive. To an observer like Fennell, they seem a good fit, but under the surface something is broken, but what that is never comes to light, because as Zanele says, “The disease of our days is that we spend so much time on the surface.”

McCann masterfully controlled the pace of the story’s ebb and flow with gorgeous stream-of-consciousness descriptions of the true meaning of the cable, the scope of the connections, the disconnectedness of the COVID pandemic, and the activities – real or imagined – of Conway.

By sticking with Fennell’s point of view for the most part, the two most intriguing characters stay intriguing and inexplicably flawed. I’m still deciding whether I really wanted more of Conway and Zanele’s story or if McCann made the best choice in keeping their relationship buried deeply for readers’ conjectures. Even Fennell is trying to fix the severed connections in his life, which could be why he wanted to see someone else’s successfully mended. However, from the beginning it’s obvious Conway is a man who is way more successful underwater than above it, literally and figuratively.

“Funny thing is that I’m out here repairing the sh-t. You want to know why? Because I keep thinking that someday it’s going to matter.

“Everything gets fixed,” he said, “and we all stay broken.”

Thank you to Random House for the ARC of this book through NetGalley, which I received for my honest review. Any quoted or excerpted material in this review may differ from the final published edition, which will be available to the public on March 25, 2025.

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