“We are all shards in the smash-up.”
“Everything gets fixed, and we all stay broken.”
As y’all know, I read the Booker longlist every year. Sometimes, I try to get a jump on things by reading eligible books that smell Bookery. (If you follow the Booker Prize, you’ll know what that means.) The buzz around Colum McCann’s Twist (Random House 2025) and its summary let me know the slim novel has that Booker scent. After reading it, I can’t imagine it not being listed provided it was submitted for consideration. (I suppose we’ll find out together on 7/29!)
The novel follows Anthony Fennell, an Irish journalist and playwright who is a bit fond of the bottle, after he gets assigned to a story about the underwater cables that transmit our telecommunications around the world. In particular, he’s tapped to do a story on a cable repair. He flies to South Africa where he joins the crew of the Georges Lecointe, the repairs under the direction and leadership of another Irishman with a fondness for a drink, John Conway. Prior to leaving Cape Town, he meets John Conway’s domestic partner and children. Zanele is a stunning South African, and Anthony is captivated by her almost instantly. This captivation dances around obsession while Anthony is out at sea.
There’s a watery Great Gatsby feel to the novel that emerges from the waves with a glaring intensity in the second half. The repair is over. The article has been written. Anthony is back on land. John, however, is missing; he’d vanished from the boat off the coast of Ghana.
In this man vs. technology and man vs. man mashup, McCann has mastered a writing that oozes uneasiness, leaving the reader just as unsettled as Anthony. When you turn that final page, you’re going to want to hide your devices, touch grass, and maybe even talk to a stranger on the street.
Read this book.
A Girl Named Tommi 