Colum McCann's Blog
February 16, 2024
Spread the word
Thank you all so much for your enthusiasm.
As this book is being published by a small (and wonderful) non-profit publisher, Etruscan, here in the States, we really do need your help getting the word out about this book.
Here's the schedule so far ...
MARCH 4 NEW YORK � with NBC’S CRAIG MELVIN! 7 p.m
NYC/BARNES & NOBLE:
MARCH 6 NEW YORK IRISH ARTS CENTER � with BUDD MISHKIN
MARCH 7 � with BOSTON/HARVARD BOOKSTORE 7pm with CHARLIE SENNOTT (Ground Truth Project)
MARCH 8 BOSTON CHILDRENS HOSPITAL Noon �
Boston Childrens Hospital Link to come
MARCH 9 PHILADELPHIA � with STING!
Tickets only $30!! Including a book.
MARCH 15 WASHINGTON D.C
DC/POLITICS & PROSE
MARCH 24 SAN FRANCISCO � IRISH ARTS FESTIVAL
MARCH 25 SAN DIEGO UNIVERSITY � KROC CENTER
MARCH 28 WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY, UTAH
APRIL 11 NJ/FRIENDS OF RIDGEWOOD PUBLIC LIBRARY
MAY 13 SYMPHONY SPACE, N.Y, with DAN BARRY of The New York Times
The first week of a book's life (the on-sale date) is extremely important and so we're really hoping that people can support us in the opening week of March 4th. You can do this in a number of ways -- by buying the book of course, but also by simply putting it on social media, or mentioning it to your friends. I neither Tik nor Tok nor Tweet, so anything you can do to help this book on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ would be greatly appreciated.
As I said before, this is one of the most important books I have ever worked on, and I am immensely proud of it.
Thank you for all that you do ...
Colum
As this book is being published by a small (and wonderful) non-profit publisher, Etruscan, here in the States, we really do need your help getting the word out about this book.
Here's the schedule so far ...
MARCH 4 NEW YORK � with NBC’S CRAIG MELVIN! 7 p.m
NYC/BARNES & NOBLE:
MARCH 6 NEW YORK IRISH ARTS CENTER � with BUDD MISHKIN
MARCH 7 � with BOSTON/HARVARD BOOKSTORE 7pm with CHARLIE SENNOTT (Ground Truth Project)
MARCH 8 BOSTON CHILDRENS HOSPITAL Noon �
Boston Childrens Hospital Link to come
MARCH 9 PHILADELPHIA � with STING!
Tickets only $30!! Including a book.
MARCH 15 WASHINGTON D.C
DC/POLITICS & PROSE
MARCH 24 SAN FRANCISCO � IRISH ARTS FESTIVAL
MARCH 25 SAN DIEGO UNIVERSITY � KROC CENTER
MARCH 28 WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY, UTAH
APRIL 11 NJ/FRIENDS OF RIDGEWOOD PUBLIC LIBRARY
MAY 13 SYMPHONY SPACE, N.Y, with DAN BARRY of The New York Times
The first week of a book's life (the on-sale date) is extremely important and so we're really hoping that people can support us in the opening week of March 4th. You can do this in a number of ways -- by buying the book of course, but also by simply putting it on social media, or mentioning it to your friends. I neither Tik nor Tok nor Tweet, so anything you can do to help this book on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ would be greatly appreciated.
As I said before, this is one of the most important books I have ever worked on, and I am immensely proud of it.
Thank you for all that you do ...
Colum
February 5, 2024
Update!
Well it's been a while!
Thank you all for hanging in there. I have had some issues trying to access my account and navigate the digital space. For those of you who know me, this is no surprise. I have Luddite tendencies. For those of you who don't know me, it's probably no surprise either!
But I wanted to alert you all to my newest work, and my first non-fiction book, American Mother from Etruscan Press in the States and Bloomsbury in the U.K and Ireland. It's a book very close to my heart, so thank you most sincerely for taking an interest in it.
And as a significant portion of the profits go to the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, it is very important that we get this book off to a good start. So I'm counting on you and the community here to help this story get out into the world ....
In August of 2014 my inbox was flooded with emails regarding the death of the American journalist James Foley. In a video seen and heard around the world, James had been brutally killed by ISIS. But the image that flooded my inbox was not the iconic one that marked an era, but a quieter one of an earlier time, a happier time, when James was still alive. He had been photographed in a military bunker, reading a novel. That novel happened to be my own 2009 book Let the Great World Spin. I was flabbergasted and emotionally stunned.
A few months later I decided to write to James Foley’s mother, Diane, telling her that I would be happy to help write her son’s story, or indeed her own. I didn't hear back from her. Shortly thereafter, I heard that she had signed a contract to write her own book, and I thought that I would leave well enough alone -- Diane was more than capable of telling her own story.
Fast forward another six years and I was on book tour for a new novel Apeirogon. In the course of a Zoom at Marquette University (James’s alma mater) I said that I had tried to be in touch with Diane, and that I was still intensely touched by the photograph of her son reading one of my novels. One of James’s best friends, Tom Durkin, was on the call. So too, it turns out, was Diane Foley! An hour later my inbox pinged. It was Diane. She told me that she had never seen my email. In the years after, she had tried to write her own story but had come up short. She expressed a sorrow that her story would not enter the world.
I was taken by Diane’s candour and grace and honesty. I suggested that I would drive from my home in New York to her home in New Hampshire, where I could sit with her and her husband, John, and perhaps operate as a “story whisperer� of sorts. I knew that her story needed to be told, and I hoped that I could help thaw some of that frozen sea. As it turned out, she told me that she would like me to accompany her to a Virginia courthouse where she had been given an opportunity to talk to her son’s killer, Alexanda Kotey, who had recently copped a plea to kidnapping and conspiracy to murder. Part of his plea agreement was that he would talk to the victims (of whom there were some still living) and/or the victim’s families. This updated the story for me -- it was taking on a whole new life �
So began American Mother.
The writing of this book has been one of the most searing and yet rewarding experiences of my literary life. I got to know Diane and her husband John. I got to know the story of James Foley. I got to meet his confessed killer, Alexanda Kotey. I got to experience the arc of justice. I also got to see what it meant to excavate the principles of forgiveness and compassion.
This book is not mine. Nor is it just Diane’s. It’s a book about journalists and storytellers and how they join the world together. It’s also a book about a mother’s uncompromising love, and not just one mother, but a nation, or nations, of them. It’s also a book about a time that seems so far away, and yet it penetrates every waking moment of where we are now. Not only that, but it is a book about those others, around the world, who have been, and are being, kidnapped and held hostage, or wrongfully detained. There are many of them. They have another hero in their midst � Diane Foley and her cohorts in the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation who have spent the past years working tirelessly to help alleviate their plight.
I am grateful that I got a chance to be a part of this story. Of course, one wishes that it would never have happened in the first place. But it did. And rather than succumb to the harsh reality of terrorism and violence and death, there have been many people in the world, not least Diane herself, who have sought to bring a slice of solace to the world.
So much of this solace comes in act of storytelling. Even more of it comes in the art of listening. So, I thank you for reading and listening. I hope that in some way it echoes back into the days when James Foley’s moral courage and desire to tell the world about injustice came ringing through. And I hope also that it reverberates in the words of Alexanda Kotey who, despite his horrendous deeds, was able to recognise, through Diane Foley, the compassion we crave in us all.
Please help spread the word!!!!!
Yours sincerely,
Colum McCann
American Mother
Thank you all for hanging in there. I have had some issues trying to access my account and navigate the digital space. For those of you who know me, this is no surprise. I have Luddite tendencies. For those of you who don't know me, it's probably no surprise either!
But I wanted to alert you all to my newest work, and my first non-fiction book, American Mother from Etruscan Press in the States and Bloomsbury in the U.K and Ireland. It's a book very close to my heart, so thank you most sincerely for taking an interest in it.
And as a significant portion of the profits go to the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, it is very important that we get this book off to a good start. So I'm counting on you and the community here to help this story get out into the world ....
In August of 2014 my inbox was flooded with emails regarding the death of the American journalist James Foley. In a video seen and heard around the world, James had been brutally killed by ISIS. But the image that flooded my inbox was not the iconic one that marked an era, but a quieter one of an earlier time, a happier time, when James was still alive. He had been photographed in a military bunker, reading a novel. That novel happened to be my own 2009 book Let the Great World Spin. I was flabbergasted and emotionally stunned.
A few months later I decided to write to James Foley’s mother, Diane, telling her that I would be happy to help write her son’s story, or indeed her own. I didn't hear back from her. Shortly thereafter, I heard that she had signed a contract to write her own book, and I thought that I would leave well enough alone -- Diane was more than capable of telling her own story.
Fast forward another six years and I was on book tour for a new novel Apeirogon. In the course of a Zoom at Marquette University (James’s alma mater) I said that I had tried to be in touch with Diane, and that I was still intensely touched by the photograph of her son reading one of my novels. One of James’s best friends, Tom Durkin, was on the call. So too, it turns out, was Diane Foley! An hour later my inbox pinged. It was Diane. She told me that she had never seen my email. In the years after, she had tried to write her own story but had come up short. She expressed a sorrow that her story would not enter the world.
I was taken by Diane’s candour and grace and honesty. I suggested that I would drive from my home in New York to her home in New Hampshire, where I could sit with her and her husband, John, and perhaps operate as a “story whisperer� of sorts. I knew that her story needed to be told, and I hoped that I could help thaw some of that frozen sea. As it turned out, she told me that she would like me to accompany her to a Virginia courthouse where she had been given an opportunity to talk to her son’s killer, Alexanda Kotey, who had recently copped a plea to kidnapping and conspiracy to murder. Part of his plea agreement was that he would talk to the victims (of whom there were some still living) and/or the victim’s families. This updated the story for me -- it was taking on a whole new life �
So began American Mother.
The writing of this book has been one of the most searing and yet rewarding experiences of my literary life. I got to know Diane and her husband John. I got to know the story of James Foley. I got to meet his confessed killer, Alexanda Kotey. I got to experience the arc of justice. I also got to see what it meant to excavate the principles of forgiveness and compassion.
This book is not mine. Nor is it just Diane’s. It’s a book about journalists and storytellers and how they join the world together. It’s also a book about a mother’s uncompromising love, and not just one mother, but a nation, or nations, of them. It’s also a book about a time that seems so far away, and yet it penetrates every waking moment of where we are now. Not only that, but it is a book about those others, around the world, who have been, and are being, kidnapped and held hostage, or wrongfully detained. There are many of them. They have another hero in their midst � Diane Foley and her cohorts in the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation who have spent the past years working tirelessly to help alleviate their plight.
I am grateful that I got a chance to be a part of this story. Of course, one wishes that it would never have happened in the first place. But it did. And rather than succumb to the harsh reality of terrorism and violence and death, there have been many people in the world, not least Diane herself, who have sought to bring a slice of solace to the world.
So much of this solace comes in act of storytelling. Even more of it comes in the art of listening. So, I thank you for reading and listening. I hope that in some way it echoes back into the days when James Foley’s moral courage and desire to tell the world about injustice came ringing through. And I hope also that it reverberates in the words of Alexanda Kotey who, despite his horrendous deeds, was able to recognise, through Diane Foley, the compassion we crave in us all.
Please help spread the word!!!!!
Yours sincerely,
Colum McCann
American Mother
March 30, 2020
Facebook Live
Colum launched the online Apeirogon Book Club last week with two Facebook live sessions. The videos are saved on his page!
You can watch them here:
Colum will be going live again next week! Stay tuned.
You can watch them here:
Colum will be going live again next week! Stay tuned.
February 20, 2020
The New York Times features Colum and his new novel, Apeirogon
The New York Times published a profile on Colum and Apeirogon, his newest novel. Colum shares details of his friendship with the novel's central characters - Rami Elhanan and Bassam Aramin - and how the book differs from his others.
Read the article here:
Read the article here:
February 16, 2020
Colum and his upcoming Apeirogon profiled in the WSJ
In a new profile from The Wall Street Journal, Colum shares the origins of his new novel, Apeirogon, and discusses "radical empathy."
"Colum McCann’s sweeping new novel has a simple origin. 'I had my heart blown open,' he explains in his soft Irish brogue, alluding to a poem by his countryman Seamus Heaney : 'As big soft buffetings come at the car sideways / And catch the heart off guard and blow it open.' What had struck Mr. McCann so forcefully were two stories he heard in 2015 in the West Bank town of Beit Jala, just south of Jerusalem."
Pre-order your copy here before the novel is released on Feb. 25th:
Read the article:
"Colum McCann’s sweeping new novel has a simple origin. 'I had my heart blown open,' he explains in his soft Irish brogue, alluding to a poem by his countryman Seamus Heaney : 'As big soft buffetings come at the car sideways / And catch the heart off guard and blow it open.' What had struck Mr. McCann so forcefully were two stories he heard in 2015 in the West Bank town of Beit Jala, just south of Jerusalem."
Pre-order your copy here before the novel is released on Feb. 25th:
Read the article:
February 11, 2020
Amazon Books editors chose their most anticipated reads and Colum McCann's Apeirogon made the list: "19 books we can’t wait to read in 2020"
"...Colum McCann has pushed the limits of kaleidoscopic. In Apeirogon, McCann unfurls the story of two fathers, one Palestinian and one Israeli, who have both lost their daughters to the violence that surrounds them. Over the course of the day, these two men’s lives intertwine as they attempt to use their grief as a weapon for peace. Rooted in history, this novel is a soaring and revelatory reading experience that is at once intimate and vast, heart-breaking and hopeful, and yes, kaleidoscopic (in the best way)." —Al Woodworth
Apeirogon will be on bookshelves on February 25th!
Apeirogon will be on bookshelves on February 25th!
December 24, 2019
A Dublin Christmas
"Every Christmas morning now is full of every Christmas morning then..."
For those who are celebrating Christmas this week (or simply want to read...), Colum's 'A Dublin Christmas' is published on his website.
"... this is the story of a suburban Christmas, a Dublin Christmas, a Christmas in the four-bedroom house where I spent my first twenty years and where, thirty-four years on, I still return no matter where I happen to be."
For those who are celebrating Christmas this week (or simply want to read...), Colum's 'A Dublin Christmas' is published on his website.
"... this is the story of a suburban Christmas, a Dublin Christmas, a Christmas in the four-bedroom house where I spent my first twenty years and where, thirty-four years on, I still return no matter where I happen to be."
November 7, 2019
AN EXTRAORDINARY LETTER FROM MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM
Colum writes: “Sometimes you just fall silent. There are just no ways to respond. I got this letter from Michael Cunningham while I was travelling in Europe. In fact I was sitting in an airport in Brussels on a flight from Dublin when I opened up my e-mail. I wrote back to Michael to say that I wanted to weep and he said, well, it probably wasn’t a good idea to weep in a Brussels airport. So instead of weeping I got myself a stiff drink and read it over and over again.
To get a letter like this from one of your all-time literary heroes is just about the most perfect thing ever. I’m almost embarrassed to share it but Michael wrote it, he said, because he wanted to share this book with everyone around him.
One of these days I might go back to the airport in Brussels just for a second drink ... "
__________
FROM MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
Every significant novel is an act of reckless originality. Colum McCann’s Apeirogon is a significant novel.
No significant novel resembles any other novel. Apeirogon is nothing like any book you’ve ever read.
One of the marks of a significant novel is the fact that it’s difficult to describe. Lesser books are easier to convey because they’re simpler, more conventional, in their plots, characters, and structures.
If I tell you that Apeirogon is about Israel and Palestine, I’ll need to tell you, as well, that it transcends even that ongoing cataclysm. It’s about the power of love and culture and tradition. It’s about cruelty and heroism, and the ways in which they can sometimes overlap.
It’s about the death of a daughter, and the shattering of a family. It’s about a piece of candy bought at a local shop and it’s about a traffic jam, both of which prove to have mortal consequences.
In McCann’s novel, nothing is unimportant. Everything is related to everything else, from genocide to the flight patterns of birds.
The novel’s highly unorthodox (and, yes, recklessly original) title is a term for a shape with a count-ably infinite number of sides. “County-ably infinite� in the same way we can start counting—one, two, three, and etc.—but will never have to stop, because numbers themselves never come to an end.
Apeirogon is exactly the right title for a book of this scale and complexity. It’s the right title for a narrative composed of stories that not only go on past the book’s final page but will inspire infinitely more stories, unknowable stories, after the reader has closed the book.
And, all right, if Apeirogon is not in any way like any of these books, think of reading David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, Anne Carson’s Autobiograpy of Red, or George Saunders� Lincoln in the Bardo for the first time. Think of discovering an entirely unprecedented, and profoundly true, narrative form. Think about feeling that the very idea of the novel, of what it can be and what it’s capable of containing, has been expanded, forever.
In the final analysis, all I can really tell you is, read McCann’s book.
___________
Apeirogon: a shape with a countably infinite number of sides.
To get a letter like this from one of your all-time literary heroes is just about the most perfect thing ever. I’m almost embarrassed to share it but Michael wrote it, he said, because he wanted to share this book with everyone around him.
One of these days I might go back to the airport in Brussels just for a second drink ... "
__________
FROM MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
Every significant novel is an act of reckless originality. Colum McCann’s Apeirogon is a significant novel.
No significant novel resembles any other novel. Apeirogon is nothing like any book you’ve ever read.
One of the marks of a significant novel is the fact that it’s difficult to describe. Lesser books are easier to convey because they’re simpler, more conventional, in their plots, characters, and structures.
If I tell you that Apeirogon is about Israel and Palestine, I’ll need to tell you, as well, that it transcends even that ongoing cataclysm. It’s about the power of love and culture and tradition. It’s about cruelty and heroism, and the ways in which they can sometimes overlap.
It’s about the death of a daughter, and the shattering of a family. It’s about a piece of candy bought at a local shop and it’s about a traffic jam, both of which prove to have mortal consequences.
In McCann’s novel, nothing is unimportant. Everything is related to everything else, from genocide to the flight patterns of birds.
The novel’s highly unorthodox (and, yes, recklessly original) title is a term for a shape with a count-ably infinite number of sides. “County-ably infinite� in the same way we can start counting—one, two, three, and etc.—but will never have to stop, because numbers themselves never come to an end.
Apeirogon is exactly the right title for a book of this scale and complexity. It’s the right title for a narrative composed of stories that not only go on past the book’s final page but will inspire infinitely more stories, unknowable stories, after the reader has closed the book.
And, all right, if Apeirogon is not in any way like any of these books, think of reading David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, Anne Carson’s Autobiograpy of Red, or George Saunders� Lincoln in the Bardo for the first time. Think of discovering an entirely unprecedented, and profoundly true, narrative form. Think about feeling that the very idea of the novel, of what it can be and what it’s capable of containing, has been expanded, forever.
In the final analysis, all I can really tell you is, read McCann’s book.
___________
Apeirogon: a shape with a countably infinite number of sides.
September 26, 2019
First Advance Praise for Apeirogon
THE FIRST BLURBS ARE COMING IN FOR Colum McCann's APEIROGON ... SPREAD THE WORD!
The advance blurbs have started to come for Apeirogon (due out Feb 2020).
Colum says in a note: “I am deeply humbled by these endorsements. It’s overwhelming really. I spent so long on this book and it was a terrific journey, so I feel blessed to get such support.�
The novel -- which takes its name from a shape with a countably infinite number of sides -- tells the story of two men in the Middle East who lose their daughters. The men become the best of friends and they travel the world in order to share the “weapon of their grief.� The novel takes place in Israel and Palestine, but it could easily take place in the Bronx and Kentucky, or in Belfast and Limerick, or any number of places around the world.
And now the first blurbs have come in ..... from two massive icons of literature in the Middle East, Raja Shehadeh and Assaf Gavron.
Distinguished by empathy and intelligence, this transformative novel marks a new threshold of writing about the conflict. Colum McCann manages to take it all in without prejudice and with profound feeling for the suffering of all sides. Apeirogon will have a potent effect on all those who read it and, remarkably, could lead to great consequences for the future of this place.
-- Raja Shehadeh, author of “Palestinian Walks� and “Language of War, Language of Peace.�
“A work of incredible magnitude. McCann finds the emotional accuracy, the sensitivity, and the beauty to tell the heartbreaking reality of life in Israel-Palestine, while allowing readers a glimmer of necessary hope. It is greater than a novel in more than one sense, and will both touch and enrich readers, wherever they live and whatever they know about the region.
FROM ASSAF GAVRON, author of “The Hilltop�
______
(We will be posting our apeirogonal news every Thursday/Friday up until publication)
The advance blurbs have started to come for Apeirogon (due out Feb 2020).
Colum says in a note: “I am deeply humbled by these endorsements. It’s overwhelming really. I spent so long on this book and it was a terrific journey, so I feel blessed to get such support.�
The novel -- which takes its name from a shape with a countably infinite number of sides -- tells the story of two men in the Middle East who lose their daughters. The men become the best of friends and they travel the world in order to share the “weapon of their grief.� The novel takes place in Israel and Palestine, but it could easily take place in the Bronx and Kentucky, or in Belfast and Limerick, or any number of places around the world.
And now the first blurbs have come in ..... from two massive icons of literature in the Middle East, Raja Shehadeh and Assaf Gavron.
Distinguished by empathy and intelligence, this transformative novel marks a new threshold of writing about the conflict. Colum McCann manages to take it all in without prejudice and with profound feeling for the suffering of all sides. Apeirogon will have a potent effect on all those who read it and, remarkably, could lead to great consequences for the future of this place.
-- Raja Shehadeh, author of “Palestinian Walks� and “Language of War, Language of Peace.�
“A work of incredible magnitude. McCann finds the emotional accuracy, the sensitivity, and the beauty to tell the heartbreaking reality of life in Israel-Palestine, while allowing readers a glimmer of necessary hope. It is greater than a novel in more than one sense, and will both touch and enrich readers, wherever they live and whatever they know about the region.
FROM ASSAF GAVRON, author of “The Hilltop�
______
(We will be posting our apeirogonal news every Thursday/Friday up until publication)
August 25, 2019
My new Novel Apeirogon
Hello to Readers!
It's so nice to be back on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ! I've been gone for a while, but I'm delighted to announce my new novel, "Apeirogon," which is due out in Spring 2020.
Apeirogon -- named for a shape with a countably infinite number of sides -- follows the lives of two men, Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan. One is Israeli, the other Palestinian. Both have lost their daughters in the conflict. When they learn each other's stories they recognise the loss that connects them and they begin to use their grief as a weapon for peace.
The story crosses centuries and continents and stitches together ideas of time, art, history, nature and politics.
It is, I hope, my most ambitious work to date.
I will be dropping in regularly to fill you in on tour dates and travel and reviews.
I deeply appreciate all your support over the years and look forward to meeting you on the road somewhere.
Best wishes
Colum
Apeirogon: A Novel
It's so nice to be back on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ! I've been gone for a while, but I'm delighted to announce my new novel, "Apeirogon," which is due out in Spring 2020.
Apeirogon -- named for a shape with a countably infinite number of sides -- follows the lives of two men, Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan. One is Israeli, the other Palestinian. Both have lost their daughters in the conflict. When they learn each other's stories they recognise the loss that connects them and they begin to use their grief as a weapon for peace.
The story crosses centuries and continents and stitches together ideas of time, art, history, nature and politics.
It is, I hope, my most ambitious work to date.
I will be dropping in regularly to fill you in on tour dates and travel and reviews.
I deeply appreciate all your support over the years and look forward to meeting you on the road somewhere.
Best wishes
Colum
Apeirogon: A Novel
