Published January 7, 2024 at 5:41 pm
End of November 2023. The streets of New York are bathed in a bright sun contradicted by a freezing breeze. Colum McCann welcomes us to his house, a few meters from the gates of Central Park, wearing mismatched socks. The barely noticeable shade: black on the left foot, navy blue on the right. It could be the curiosity of a reckless writer, a penchant for sartorial nonchalance. But coming from an author who has made difference a compass and whose entire work seems focused on understanding others, we might see it as something other than a coincidence in the laundry basket.
At the origin of his latest book, American motherthere is another book, also by him: And may the vast world continue its mad rush (Belfond, 2009). Built around the feat of the tightrope walker Philippe Petit, who in 1974 walked on a tightrope 400 meters high between the twin towers of the World Trade Center, this ensemble novel presented characters with disparate destinies: an Irish priest, prostitutes from the Bronx, two painters, a pair of grieving middle-class parents – all, like a high wire, balancing on the edge of the abyss, stumbling, struggling and constantly reinventing themselves. And may the vast world continue its mad rush won Colum McCann the National Book Award and tens of thousands of readers.
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2024-01-07 16:41:00
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