A darkly epic novel about connection, disconnection and destruction - from the New York Times-bestselling, National Book Award-winning, Booker Prize-longlisted author of Let the Great World Spin
**Named a 2025 book to look out for by the Observer, Financial Times, Irish Times and New European**
'Urgent and utterly compelling' KEVIN BARRY
'One of our greatest storytellers' ELIF SHAFAK
'A powerfully realist novel of men at sea ... It speaks of the brokenness of our time, the successful and unsuccessful attempts at repairs, and the vulnerability of our world' SALMAN RUSHDIE
____________________________________________________
Anthony Fennell, a journalist, is in pursuit of a story buried at the bottom of the sea: the network of tiny fibre-optic tubes that carry the world's information across the ocean floor - and what happens when they break.
So he has travelled to Cape Town to board the George Lecointe, a cable repair vessel captained by Chief of Mission John Conway. Conway is a talented engineer and fearless freediver - and Fennell is quickly captivated by this mysterious, unnerving man and his beautiful partner, Zanele.
As the boat embarks along the west coast of Africa, Fennell learns the rhythms of life at sea, and finds his place among the band of drifters who make up the crew. But as the mission falters, tensions simmer - and Conway is thrown into crisis. A terrible, violent tragedy is unfolding in the life he has left behind on land; and, trapped out at sea, it seems as if the vast expanse of the ocean is closing in.
Then Conway disappears; and Fennell must set out to find him.
As taut and propulsive as a thriller, and a timeless exploration of narrative and truth, Twist is the work of a master storyteller at the height of his powers.
'Electrifying, propulsive ... A masterful exploration of the elemental forces at work just below the surface of all our lives' COLIN WALSH, author of Kala
About the Author
Colum McCann’s seven novels and three collections of short stories have been published in over forty languages and received some of the world’s most prestigious literary awards and honours, including the National Book Award for his novel Let the Great World Spin in 2009. His novel TransAtlantic was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2013, and his most recent novel, Apeirogon, also longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, is an international bestseller on four continents.
Industry Reviews
McCann may follow Coppola upriver and Conrad to the heart of darkness but the concerns of his novel are contemporary and urgent and utterly compelling. This is an ambitious novel, note perfect, wild but controlled, with its deft apparatus mapping our most mysterious 21st century malaise – the great loneliness of the connected world -- Kevin Barry
A Graham Greene-ish thriller … Dark, moving and very entertaining -- Alex Preston OBSERVER, Fiction to look out for in 2025
A thrilling tale of a man all at sea FINANCIAL TIMES, What to read in 2025
Masterfully woven and delicately layered, and told with such calm wisdom that it will take your breath away. Engrossing, deeply moving and consistently honest, Colum McCann is one of our greatest storytellers -- Elif Shafak
Electrifying, propulsive ... a masterful exploration of the elemental forces at work just below the surface of all our lives -- Colin Walsh
With echoes of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Twist by Colum McCann, his follow-up to the acclaimed Apeirogon, follows two Irishmen off Africa as vital underwater cables are repaired, and sabotaged IRISH TIMES, Fiction to look out for in 2025
