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.

#twist #randomhouse #netgalley #colummccann #books #bookreview #nerdventureswithbooks

I am a longtime fan of Colum McCann's work. TWIST is an exciting new release -- a bit hard to categorize but certainly a winner for me. I can see the references to HEART OF DARKNESS as there are some thematic similarities between the works. Make no mistake though; this is a thoroughly new and modern story. The underwater cables are fascinating, and the two men at this story's center are equally mesmerizing. There is an almost hypnotic sense to the prose. While by no means a thriller, the plot does pick up in a interesting way. Put simply, Colum McCann is a fantastic writer.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance e-galley; all opinions in my review are 100% my own.

I loved Colum McCann’s “Apeirogon” and, so, was drawn to “Twist”, his new book (publishing in March). “Twist” is an immersive novel, one which heads to sea to fictionalize the boats and their sailors who are charged with repairing breaks in the all-important cables that carry internet traffic around the world at depths up to 4 miles. Repairing the breaks requires pain-staking raking of the sea floor to capture the broken ends, which then have to be woven back together. At approximately the size of garden hoses, the fiber optic cables elude capture and require an artist of sorts to find and repair them.

Twist is written from the point of view of Anthony Fennell, an Irish journalist who has been charged with writing an in-depth article about a cable repair operation. He meets enigmatic John Conway, the head of the cable-repair undertaking in South Africa, and is immediately taken by him. In addition to being head of cable repair for his part of the world, Conway is a master freediver. Conway is also in a relationship with a renowned actress – Zanelle – an interesting character all her own. Journalist Fennell becomes ever more entranced with Zee and follows closely as she undergoes trauma while putting on a play in London. More can’t be said without giving away the plot.

In Twist, McCann does a good job of maintaining the drama, never allowing the story to become stale or boring. He writes beautifully, capturing all the nuances of sea travel and diving, in particular. If there is a theme to the novel, it is one of connections, both made and broken. The connection of cables under the sea, and the connection of human lives in all their messy particulars. Fennell’s life is changed by his connection with Conway. Mine is changed, admittedly in small way, but changed, indeed, by my exposure to McCann’s literature. Recommended.

Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the DRC of this book in exchange for my opinions.

Some interesting information about the cables, breaking and fixing them, deep sea diving, Africa, London, and life on a ship. The rest was a slow study in relationships and mental fitness. I really didn’t enjoy the book but can appreciate how others would. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

The narrator of this exceptionally good novel is Anthony Fennell, a middle-aged Irish journalist and playwright. His early success has faded, in part because, “The bottle does a good job of drinking the mind.” He has now been assigned to cover the repair of the cables that run at the greatest depths of the oceans and carry everything that traverses the internet.

This has little to do with the technology of the internet. The focus is on the people who do the physical labor that is needed to keep it going. Fennell meets John Conway, chief of mission on a cable repair ship. Conway is a skilled engineer and a free-diver who can reach depths in excess of 200 feet. [The world record for free-diving, by the way, is over 800 feet.]

The language of this novel is beautiful, thoughtful, and often poetic:
• The rain rained upon itself.
• I suppose we go out to sea because we want, eventually, to come home.
• Part of our human warmth is the darkness we don’t show to each other.
• I had begun to realize that nothing, once begun, ever properly finishes.

The book is about connections … We make them, we drop them, we try to reconnect …

"Everything is made to be disassembled. Not all of it can be repaired. All there is is the trying."

I gave this 5 stars. Maybe it should only be 4.9. LOL

“You know if the ocean was a bank, they’d have saved it a long time ago.”

Twist is deep dive into a conversation that needs to be had but seems to fall short of the right words to say.

Anthony Fennel a journalist, goes on an expedition with a team that fixes the cables that run at the depths of the ocean floor that connect our internet. He follows Conway, the team leader of the mission. Fennel follows the team to write a piece of what it takes to fix the internet at that level. Fennel has no idea of what he is about to dive into.

Colum McCann does a great job a presenting a question that must be asked. The question is how much do we rely on the internet and what do we use it for? Twist is an amazing way at presenting the question but I feel the story took a detour somewhere in the middle. Almost the entire story is told from the first person perspective which I loved. Fennel seemed to have an infatuation with Conway almost like a Great Gatsby homage. But then a random chapter switched to 3rd person and from a completely different perspective and I wasn’t sure why. There a tons of great quotes in this book but great quotes don’t always make for a great story.

It was a little slow for me but that may be a personal take. I loved the idea of the story and its premise but the execution just fell a little short.

McCann finds the most interesting premises to write about. His tales are always interesting and his writing is always beautiful. But what i love the most is always his character development. His characters stick with you. They are so three-dimensional they jump off the page.

This is the story of Fennell, a journalist who is sent to connect with Conway. Conway repairs the internet cables that lie in the ocean when they break. He is an engineer and a freediver. He's married to an artist who becomes famous during the time of the novel. The story is interesting in of itself. There are cables in the sea that carry the information we have at our fingertips. When the cables break, someone has to actually go fix them. Conway is one of those people. That is interesting, isn't it?

But then there's so much more. And there's a mystery. In the solving of that mystery, more mysteries are unearthed and we are reminded that at their core, people are complex and we will never truly know them.

with gratitude to netgalley and Random House for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

The story is about deep sea divers who repair the transmitting cables at the bottom of the various oceans. It is lyrical, erudite and absolutely
fascinating. Mr. Fennel joins the crew of a repair ship that is waiting in the harbor in Capetown South Africa . He is going to write an article about the work the crew does. Conway is the highly respected but enigmatic Captain.
The information about free diving and really deep sea diving is enlightening and thrilling.
It is a must read!

Thank you Netgalley

Who knew that 90% of the world’s information lay encapsulated in fiber optic cables on our ocean floors? That is what we, and Anthony Fennel, discover in Colum McCann’s newest book Twist. It is a story about a journalist who is a bit down on his luck. His next big story is to write about this very thing, to go on a ship as it sets to sea to repair such a break.
Anthony Fennel meets John Conway, the Chief of Mission. McCann’s novel is a bit dark as these two alcoholic men look inward. Conway’s partner is Zanelle, who he is senselessly in love with. She is a successful actress with an independent personality. The men go to sea to repair the cable break. There was an interesting parallel between the break in the line and the break in the relationship. Everyone is dependent upon these fiber optic cables, even the man sent to repair them.
Wonderful confluence of international characters. Also stark contrasts of Old World and State of the Art technology and how we are still dependent on both.
The book takes a turn and becomes a mystery/ thriller when Conway turns up missing. The book is at its best when it spotlights how vulnerable our telecommunication system is and how heavy handed we are with this planet. There is not an inch that we have not damaged.
I loved the concept that McCann chose and the ideas he exposed me to. His writing was, as usual, top shelf. However, I had a difficult time connecting with the characters in this book. I want to thank Penguin Random House and NetGally for an ARC of this book. These opinions are my own.

Colum McCann has always been a favorite author of mine. His writing is beautiful. The focus of the book, underwater cabling that traverses the oceans floors to provide internet service worldwide, is fascinating. Unfortunately, as lovely as his writing, I just didn't engage with the story and found it to be quite a slog. I wanted to be more interested in the characters than I was. I just didn't understand Conway or his motivations.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the early readers copy.

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!