17 ratings | 0 reviews | avg rating:5.00

more photos (1)

Colum's Bookshelves

read (44)
currently-reading (0)
to-read (0)

Colum’s Friends (120)

Behind The Book

84 books | 25 friends

Esther

1,034 books | 287 friends

Marleen

897 books | 218 friends

LuAnn

523 books | 232 friends

Sarah

316 books | 317 friends

Andrew

668 books | 133 friends

1,349 books | 109 friends

Josh

22,899 books | 243 friends

More friends…

Colum is following 0 people

Colum McCann

Goodreads author profile

born

in Ireland

gender

male

website

http://www.colummccann.com

genre

Literature & Fiction, Biographies & Memoirs

member since

February 2009

About this author

edit data

Colum McCann is the author of two collections of short stories and four novels, including "This Side of Brightness,""Dancer" and “Zoli,” all of which were international best-sellers. His newest novel “Let the Great World Spin” will come out in 2009. His fiction has been published in 26 languages and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Paris Review and other places. He has written for numerous publications including The Irish Times, Die Zeit, La Republicca, Paris Match, The New York Times, the Guardian and the Independent.

In 2003 Colum was named Esquire magazine's "Writer of the Year." Other awards and honors include a Pushcart Prize, the Rooney Prize, the Irish Independent Hughes and Hughes/Sunday Independent Novel of...more Colum McCann is the author of two collections of short stories and four novels, including "This Side of Brightness,""Dancer" and “Zoli,” all of which were international best-sellers. His newest novel “Let the Great World Spin” will come out in 2009. His fiction has been published in 26 languages and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Paris Review and other places. He has written for numerous publications including The Irish Times, Die Zeit, La Republicca, Paris Match, The New York Times, the Guardian and the Independent.

In 2003 Colum was named Esquire magazine's "Writer of the Year." Other awards and honors include a Pushcart Prize, the Rooney Prize, the Irish Independent Hughes and Hughes/Sunday Independent Novel of the Year 2003, and the 2002 Ireland Fund of Monaco Princess Grace Memorial Literary Award. He was recently inducted into the Hennessy Hall of Fame for Irish Literature.

His short film "Everything in this Country Must," directed by Gary McKendry, was nominated for an Academy Award Oscar in 2005.

Colum was born in Dublin in 1965 and began his career as a journalist in The Irish Press. In the early 1980's he took a bicycle across North America and then worked as a wilderness guide in a program for juvenile delinquents in Texas. After a year and a half in Japan, he and his wife Allison moved to New York where they currently live with their three children, Isabella, John Michael and Christian.

Colum teaches in Hunter College in New York, in the Creative Writing program, with fellow novelists Peter Carey and Nathan Englander.

Colum has completed his new novel, "Let the Great World Spin." It is scheduled for release in the U.S on June 23 rd, 2009. An extract was published in the Paris Review in fall 2008. The British and Irish release will be in August, while European publishers will quickly follow up – in what amounts to an unprecedented international publication – in September 2009.

The novel begins in August 1974 as a tightrope walker makes his way through the dawn light across the World Trade Center towers, stunning thousands of watchers below. Using the true story of Philippe Petit as a pull-through metaphor, McCann crafts a portrait of the city and a people. There’s Corrigan, a radical young Irish monk, who struggles with his own demons as he lives among the prostitutes in the burning Bronx. A group of mothers gather in a Park Avenue apartment to mourn the sons who died in Vietnam – they soon discover how much divides them even in their grief. Further uptown, Tillie, a 38-year-old grandmother, turns tricks alongside her teenaged daughter, determined not only to take care of her “babies” but to prove her own worth.

Elegantly weaving together these and other seemingly disparate lives, McCann’s powerful allegory of 9/11 comes alive in the unforgettable voices of the city’s people, unexpectedly drawn together by hope, beauty, and the tightrope walker’s “artistic crime of the century.” McCann’s most ambitious work to date, Let the Great World Spin has already been described as a triumphant American novel.

Let the Great World Spin will be published June 30th. Advance copies will be available here on GoodReads!!!!

(less)

3 posts
Colum McCann's Blog

June ... and a new book

Hello to Readers ...
I'm gearing up for the launch of "Let the Great World Spin" (coming from Random House, June 23) and invite you all to visit my website colummccann.com where I'm going to be posting tour dates and so on.
Quite honestly, I'm nervous and charged at the same time.
I'll spend most of July in the U.S, then in France in August, Ireland and England in early September, France again a... Read more of this blog post »

5 comments

• 6 likes · like •

Published on June 02, 2009 10:14 • 817 views

View all 3 posts »

combine editions
Colum McCann's Books

Average rating: 3.88 · 48,596 ratings · 6,707 reviews · 24 distinct works · Similar authors

	Let the Great World Spin 3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 avg rating — 43,285 ratings — published 2009 — 48 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dancer 3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 avg rating — 1,432 ratings — published 2003 — 24 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Zoli 3.62 of 5 stars 3.62 avg rating — 1,345 ratings — published 2001 — 23 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	This Side of Brightness 3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 avg rating — 1,108 ratings — published 1998 — 22 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	TransAtlantic 4.19 of 5 stars 4.19 avg rating — 367 ratings — published 2013	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Everything in This Country Must 3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 avg rating — 338 ratings — published 2000 — 10 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Songdogs 3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 avg rating — 260 ratings — published 1995 — 8 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fishing the Sloe-Black River 3.95 of 5 stars 3.95 avg rating — 184 ratings — published 1984 — 13 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fire and Forget: Short Stories from the Long War by Colum McCann (Goodreads Author) (Foreword), Roy Scranton (Editor), Matt Gallagher (Editor) 4.44 of 5 stars 4.44 avg rating — 43 ratings — published 2013	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hungerstreik 4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2001 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Colum McCann…

Upcoming Events

No scheduled events. Add an event.

Interviews

June 2013, Colum McCann
"Characters, real and fictional, crisscross the ocean in search of peace in TransAtlantic, the latest historical novel from the National Book Award winner for Let the Great World Spin." ...More

more interviews »

rss
Colum's Recent Updates

Colum McCann added a photo
May 20, 2013 06:16pm · 2 likes · like · view gallery
Colum McCann made a comment on his profile "Hello! I have finally crawled out of the woodwork, or the pagework. Have just pressed "send" on the very last draft of my new novel TransAtlantic which...more "
Jan 29, 2013 04:00pm
Colum McCann rated a book 5 of 5 stars Julius Winsome by Gerard Donovan	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 08, 2009 09:03am
Colum McCann rated a book 5 of 5 stars When Skateboards Will Be Free: A Memoir of a Political Childhood by Said Sayrafiezadeh (Goodreads Author)	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 20, 2009 09:43am
Colum McCann rated a book 5 of 5 stars Hope & Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami (Goodreads Author)	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 14, 2009 06:15am
Colum McCann rated a book 5 of 5 stars That They May Face The Rising Sun by John McGahern	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 14, 2009 06:02am
Colum McCann rated a book 5 of 5 stars Paula Spencer by Roddy Doyle	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 14, 2009 06:01am
Colum McCann said "yes" to attending Puck Fair Literary Brunch for Saint Patricks Day, Hosted by Colum McCann date: March 15, 2009 01:00PM location: Puck Fair, Lafayette Street, New York, The United States description: A literary brunch. Irish and American writers reading from their favourite Irish writers (dead and alive!) for Saint Patrick's Day. $15 but a full brunch and drink is included. Previous years readers include Frank McCourt, Richard Price, Thomas Kelly, Gerard Donovan
Mar 14, 2009 05:56am · like
Colum McCann rated a book 5 of 5 stars Fall of Frost: A Novel by Brian Hall	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 14, 2009 05:50am
Colum McCann rated a book 5 of 5 stars The Summer He Didn't Die by Jim Harrison	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Mar 14, 2009 05:49am

More of Colum's books…

Quotes by Colum McCann

“The world spins. We stumble on. It is enough.”
― Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin

122 people liked it

“Some people think love is the end of the road, and if you're lucky enough to find it, you stay there. Other people say it just becomes a cliff you drive off, but most people who've been around awhile know it's just a thing that changes day by day, and depending on how much you fight for it, you get it, or you hold on to it, or you lose it, but sometimes it's never even there in the first place.”
― Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin

116 people liked it

“The thing about love is that we come alive in bodies not our own.”
― Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin

95 people liked it

See all Colum McCann's quotes »

Polls

What book would you like as the Group Read Book in January for the New Year? Remember if there is not any books that you like on here. You may pick another book. Just remember to be specifice on the other book.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

3 votes, 23.1%

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

3 votes, 23.1%

Great House by Nicole Krauss

2 votes, 15.4%

Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey

2 votes, 15.4%

Guilty Pleasures (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, #1)

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

2 votes, 15.4%

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie

1 vote, 7.7%

The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill

0 votes, 0.0%

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

0 votes, 0.0%

Halflings by Heather Burch

0 votes, 0.0%

13 total votes

comments and details

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Book Addicts!: National Book Award 2009	6	114	Nov 23, 2009 02:30pm
Between the Lines: April 2010 - Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann	5	56	May 09, 2010 12:46pm
Challenge: 50 Books: David's 50 books in 2010	8	61	Jul 31, 2010 07:07pm
Between the Lines: Beth K's 2010 Challenge	52	100	Sep 07, 2010 06:44am
The Book Addicts!: Picking Our October Books!	81	255	Sep 08, 2010 05:56am
Barnes & Nobl...: Nominations for Oct 2010	16	57	Sep 23, 2010 10:03am
The Next Best Boo...: September's Group Reads ARE.....	80	329	Sep 23, 2010 10:51am

More…

view all 1
Colum McCann's favorite authors

Colum McCann
author of
Let the G...

Add New
Videos

Colum's Bookshelves

Colum’s Friends (120)

Colum's Fans (818)

Colum McCann

Goodreads author profile

3 posts
Colum McCann's Blog

combine editions
Colum McCann's Books

Upcoming Events

Interviews

rss
Colum's Recent Updates

Quotes by Colum McCann

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

view all 1
Colum McCann's favorite authors

Colum’s Friend Comments

Flag Abuse

Colum McCann

Goodreads author profile

Upcoming Events

Interviews

rssColum's Recent Updates

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Flag Abuse

rss
Colum's Recent Updates