'A good story is facts, imagination and language rolled into a tight,...
In the second part of their email conversation, Colum McCann and Aleksandar Hemon discuss the roles of language and facts in power strugglesSasha: It's interesting that you make language a tool of...
View Article'Literature has been reduced to writing, writers to irrelevant experts'
In the third part of their email conversation, Colum McCann and Aleksandar Hemon discuss the place of personal accounts in history and of political conviction in literatureSasha: Yes, yes, I agree with...
View Article'Reading can tilt the world... God knows, we need some tilting'
In the concluding part of their email exchange, Colum McCann and Aleksandar Hemon discuss the function of writers, language and literature in an aliterate cultureSasha: Yeah, but who does the writer...
View ArticleReview: Zoli by Colum McCann
Richard Eyre is charmed by Colum McCann's convincing account of Gypsy life, ZoliZoli by Colum McCann 352pp, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £10.99Henry James once remarked that a young woman with literary...
View ArticleColum McCann's top 10 novels on poets
Zoli, the latest novel from the award-winning Colum McCann, published last month by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, tells the story of a Romani poet, following her from her early days with a travelling...
View ArticleLet the Great World Spin by Colum McCann | Book review
Tim Adams is dazzled by the reckless skill of Colum McCann's new novel, set on the day of Philippe Petit's Twin Towers high-wire walkIn the exact centre of this novel, poised, is a 10-page account of...
View ArticleAuthor, author: Colum McCann
I still have my father-in-law's shoes in a box in the cupboard of my writing room. I haven't looked at them in a couple of years, but they're there, covered in the dust of the World Trade Centre...
View ArticleLet the Great World Spin by Colum McCann | Book review
James Buchan looks on as 1970s New York is graced with an extraordinary high-wire actPhilippe Petit, a French street performer and high-wire artist, walked a tightrope between the unfinished World...
View ArticleColum McCann wins National Book award for fiction
Irish-born writer's novel Let the Great World Spin, focused on Philippe Petit's World Trade Centre tightrope walk, acclaimed as 'gravity-defying feat'Colum McCann won the fiction prize at the National...
View ArticleAifric Campbell's top 10 jobs in fiction
From selling houses with Richard Ford to ballet dancing with Colum McCann and spying with John Banville, the novelist lists her favourite portrayals of working lifeAifric Campbell was born in Ireland....
View ArticleImpac prize shortlist dominated by three-strong Irish contingent
Colm Tóibín, Colum McCann and William Trevor are all in the frame for the world's most lucrative literary awardSome of the biggest names in Irish literature are set to go head to head for the richest...
View ArticleColum McCann wins 2011 Impac Dublin prize
Irish author brings beefy 100,000 international literary award home to Dublin for his novel Let the Great World SpinThe world's richest literary prize, the 100,000 Impac award, was brought home to its...
View ArticleMy heroes: Colum McCann on John Berger, Gordon Banks and Sean McCann
John Berger, Gordon Banks and Sean McCannMy earliest hero was my father, Sean McCann. He was a journalist, a football player, a radio announcer, but most of all he was and still is the man who...
View ArticleSue Arnold's audiobook choice - reviews
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann, Snowdrops by AD Miller and The Sense of an Ending by Julian BarnesLet the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann, read by Richard Poe and others (15½hrs unabridged,...
View ArticleColum McCann: a life in writing
'That's the beauty of being a writer you continue to be reckless. You can jump off the edge'A Dublin accent is just made to say "arse": in Colum McCann's gentle brogue the word becomes a beautiful...
View ArticleTransAtlantic by Colum McCann review
Colum McCann once again demonstrates his ambition and skill as a storytellerIt's probably about time we agreed to give Colum McCann his own eponymous adjective. It would make sense, at any rate, to...
View ArticleMy favourite first line by writers on the 2013 Man Booker prize longlist
Atlantic magazine asked some of America's greatest writers last week for their favourite first lines from literature. We decided to ask the same of this year's Man Booker prize longlist with some...
View ArticleJim Crace is Booker favourite as judges prepare to unveil shortlist
Bookmakers refine their offers and speculation mounts before list of authors in contention for Booker prize is cut from 13 to sixWith less than a week to go until the Man Booker Prize shortlist 2013 is...
View ArticleReaders' books of the year 2013: part 1
From Sebastian Faulks's Jeeves and the Wedding Bells to Patrick Ness's More Than This to Alan Johnson's This Boy, Guardian readers pick their favourite reads of 2013Burial Rites by Hannah Kent...
View ArticleNew York in books: readers' picks
From the glamour of 1950s Manhattan to the decadence of Wall Street today, New York is a literary capital. Last week we offered you a guide to books about New York and you had a lot more to suggest....
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