Twist
The Irish Times top 5 bestseller from the winner of the National Book Award
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4.0 • 12 Ratings
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- $25.99
Publisher Description
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
**The instant Irish Times top 5 bestseller**
**Named a 2025 book to look out for by the Observer, Financial Times, Irish Times and New European**
'Urgent and utterly compelling' KEVIN BARRY
'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
'Masterful ... A surprising, electric book' IRISH TIMES
'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
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
National Book Award winner McCann (Apeirogon) offers an intriguing story of a journalist sent to report on the complex work of repairing the underwater cables that carry the world's information. Anthony Fennell, 48, a struggling novelist and heavy drinker, flies to Cape Town to board a cable repair ship, hoping the assignment will boost his stagnating career. He meets fellow Irishman John Conway, the chief of mission, and John's girlfriend, Zanele Ombassa, a promising Black South African actor who soon leaves for England to be in a play. Conway will be dead not long after the reporting assignment ends, Fennell tells the reader, and his narration amounts to an attempt to make sense of what happened after they embarked to fix a series of cable breaks. The mission grows particularly fraught when Conway determines that a cable is broken at the bottom of an underwater canyon, far too deep to dive, and attempts to recover it with a grappling hook ("A trip to Hades armed with a piece of steel," as Fennell describes the operation). Conway then learns Zanele has been attacked onstage and is in the hospital, but cannot leave the ship because they're too far from shore. McCann skillfully ratchets up the uneasiness on board and later adds a provocative twist, taking the novel in an unexpected direction. Readers will be dazzled.
