Book Review: Twist

Twist
By Colum McCann
Review by Marija

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

Twist, McCann’s seventh novel, brings to us an astounding image of the thousands of miles of snaking lines of sea-floor cables which carry over two thirds of our communication today. I was fascinated by how little I knew about this essential aspect of our lives – the never-ending, gushing stream of information, which comes to us via hair-breadth wide glass fibres.

Our two main characters are on their way to repair a major internet cable off the coast of East Africa. Fennell is a journalist with a mid-life crisis, a recovering alcoholic, and an absent father. Conway is the Chief of Mission with a murky past, self-reliant, capable, and falling-apart.

What follows is a deft exploration of the fragility of our way of life, of the almost fantastical links that transmit all of human experiences day in, day out. Both characters are caught in a web of broken relationships, disconnected from both themselves and others, while simultaneously on their way to connect a large part of the African seaboard to the rest of the World. Oh, the sinister irony!

McCann’s writing is both beautiful, and uneasy. It veers off suddenly in different directions, gathering glimpses of our world standing on the knife edge of thriving and falling apart. Readers of Paul Harding, Margaret Atwood, and Ian McEwan will love this timely read.