Let the Great World Spin

by Colum McCann

It's New York, August 1974: a man is walking in the sky. Between the newly built Twin Towers, the man twirls through the air. Far below, the lives of complete strangers spin towards each other: Corrigan, a radical Irish monk working in the Bronx; Claire, a delicate Upper East Side housewife reeling from the death of her son; Lara, a drug-addled young artist; Gloria, solid and proud despite decades of hardship; Tillie, a hooker who used to dream of a better life; and Jazzlyn, her beautiful daughter raised on promises that reach beyond the skyline of New York. In the shadow of one reckless and beautiful act, these disparate lives will collide, and be transformed for ever.

'An astonishing balancing act by a great writer prepared to take risks. A book to treasure' Daily Mail 'A blockbuster, groundbreaking, heartbreaking, symphony of a novel ... No novelist writing of New York has climbed higher, dived deeper' Frank McCourt 'McCann has reinvented the city of New York in all its breathing, fighting, whining, joyous clamour' Peter Carey, Observer Books of the Year 'A wow of a novel - rich, humane, brilliantly written and as deep as it is wide' The Times

Colum McCann, originally from Dublin, Ireland, is the author of five novels and two collections of stories. He has won numerous international literary awards, including the inaugural Ireland Fund of Monaco Princess Grace Memorial Award. His film Everything in This Country Must was nominated for a short-film Oscar in 2005. Zoli, Dancer and This Side of Brightness were international bestsellers and his fiction has been published in twenty-seven languages. He lives in New York.