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
‘Urgent and utterly compelling … Wild but controlled, with its deft apparatus mapping our most mysterious 21st century malaise – the great loneliness of the connected world’ 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
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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
‘Twist lingers long after you’ve put it down’ GUARDIAN
‘A Gatsby tale for the internet age’ ANNA FUNDER
‘One of our greatest storytellers’ ELIF SHAFAK
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Publication date: 04/03/2025
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.
