Apeirogon: A Novel

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ? „A quite extraordinary novel. Colum McCann has found the form and voice to tell the most complex of stories, with an unexpected friendship between two men at its powerfully beating heart.“–Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire

FINALIST FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD ? LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE ? WINNER OF THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD ? NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Independent ? The New York Public Library ? Library Journal

From the National Book Award-winning and bestselling author of Let the Great World Spin comes an epic novel rooted in the unlikely real-life friendship between two fathers.

Bassam Aramin is Palestinian. Rami Elhanan is Israeli. They inhabit a world of conflict that colors every aspect of their lives, from the roads they are allowed to drive on to the schools their children attend to the checkpoints, both physical and emotional, they must negotiate.

But their lives, however circumscribed, are upended one after the other: first, Rami’s thirteen-year-old daughter, Smadar, becomes the victim of suicide bombers; a decade later, Bassam’s ten-year-old daughter, Abir, is killed by a rubber bullet. Rami and Bassam had been raised to hate one another. And yet, when they learn of each other’s stories, they recognize the loss that connects them. Together they attempt to use their grief as a weapon for peace–and with their one small act, start to permeate what has for generations seemed an impermeable conflict.

This extraordinary novel is the fruit of a seed planted when the novelist Colum McCann met the real Bassam and Rami on a trip with the non-profit organization Narrative 4. McCann was moved by their willingness to share their stories with the world, by their hope that if they could see themselves in one another, perhaps others could too.

With their blessing, and unprecedented access to their families, lives, and personal recollections, McCann began to craft Apeirogon, which uses their real-life stories to begin another–one that crosses centuries and continents, stitching together time, art, history, nature, and politics in a tale both heartbreaking and hopeful. The result is an ambitious novel, crafted out of a universe of fictional and nonfictional material, with these fathers’ moving story at its heart.

Editorial Reviews

Brilliant . . . powerful and prismatic . . . Apeirogon is an empathy engine, utterly collapsing the gulf between teller and listener. . . . It achieves its aim by merging acts of imagination and extrapolation with historical fact. But it’s undisputably a novel, and, to my mind, an exceedingly important one. It does far more than make an argument for peace; it is, itself, an agent of change.“–The New York Times Book Review (cover review)

„This is a wondrous book. In an accretion of splendid detail, McCann writes with an amazing abundance of humanity as he describes the age-old story of inhumanity to man. The effect is absolutely staggering–it will bring you to your knees. Writing at the top of his game, McCann brings us a book that we sorely need. It left me hopeful; this is its gift. What a read!“–Elizabeth Strout

„Virtuosic . . . Colum McCann’s grand and exhilarating novel Apeirogon is . . . a profound prayer for peace. . . . Apeirogon reminds us that such incandescent art evokes humility and light in the face of oppression and loss.“–O: The Oprah Magazine

„Dazzling . . . hypnotic . . . heartbreaking and mesmerizing . . . Besides the kaleidoscopic brilliance of the narrative, this is also a deeply human story.“–San Francisco Chronicle

„McCann performs his own epic balancing act between life and art, writing with stunning lyricism and fluent empathy as he traces the ripple effects of violence and grief, beauty, and the miraculous power of friendship and love, valor and truth.“–Booklist (starred review)

„Distinguished by empathy and intelligence, this transformative novel marks a new threshold of writing about the conflict. Apeirogon will have a potent effect on all those who read it and, remarkably, could lead to great consequences for the future of this place.“–Raja Shehadeh, author of Palestinian Walks

„A work of incredible magnitude . . . McCann finds the emotional accuracy, the sensitivity, and the beauty to tell the heartbreaking reality of life in Israel-Palestine, while allowing readers a glimmer of necessary hope.“–Assaf Gavron, author of The Hilltop

„A soaring, ambitious triumph . . . deeply nuanced and sensitive . . . a remarkable achievement . . . McCann’s latest novel might be his finest yet.“–Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
– From the Publisher

A work of incredible magnitude. McCann finds the emotional accuracy, the sensitivity, and the beauty to tell the heartbreaking reality of life in Israel-Palestine, while allowing readers a glimmer of necessary hope. It is greater than a novel in more than one sense, and will both touch and enrich readers, wherever they live and whatever they know about the region.
– author of The Hilltop Assaf Gavron

„Gorgeous prose; a sweeping look at the paradoxical relationship between history and private life; a penetrating examination of the deficiencies and marvels of the human spirit. . . .Apeirogon is visceral and devastating, yes; but it is also propulsive, muscular, swerving through details of life-real and imagined-with urgency, borne along on prose that is some of McCann’s finest, fully displaying his powers as a storyteller of just about supernatural ability. This book will break your heart and make you rethink how storytelling works.“
– Tea Obreht

Colum McCann loves a high-wire act, and Apeirogon is a powerful, political tightrope walk of a novel. It’s the story of modern Israel and the story of modern Palestine. This beautiful, deeply felt book is first and foremost an extraordinary act of listening.
– Nathan Englander

The latest novel from the National Book Award winner blends fiction with history to examine how two men channel their grief into political power as they become advocates for peace in the Middle East
– Time magazine

In the spirit of Picasso’s Guernica, Apeirogon reminds us that such incandescent art evokes humility and light in the face of oppression and loss“
– O magazine

Brilliant … powerful and prismatic … Apeirogon is an empathy engine, utterly collapsing the gulf between teller and listener … It achieves its aim by merging acts of imagination and extrapolation with historical fact. But it’s undisputably a novel, and, to my mind, an exceedingly important one. It does far more than make an argument for peace; it is, itself, an agent of change
– New York Times Book Review

„Eloquent and erudite, Apeirogon reinvents and reimagines some incidents and conversations, but it is at its core a true story. And because it is true, it is at times both unbelievable and unbearable to read. . . . It is near impossible to read those speeches without weeping, and it is equally impossible to read them without being inspired to hope.“
– Winnipeg Free Press

A jagged, fractured, teeming novel … Apeirogon is a daring structural feat, a conspicuously elaborate and multivalent piece of novelistic engineering … The distilled and fractured form has a glistening poetry“
– Times Literary Supplement (London)

Thirteen Ways of Looking wonderfully showcases [McCann’s] fierce intellect and capacious, empathetic imagination.“
– The Globe and Mail

A loving, thoughtful, grueling novel“
– Washington Post

Weaves documentary and imagination into its tough physical fabric … Frequently beautiful … Often dazzles … At the core of this fractal fiction is a simple, radiant myth: „The hero makes a friend of his enemy““
– The Economist

A quite extraordinary novel. Colum McCann has found the form and voice to tell the most complex of stories, with an unexpected friendship between two men at its powerfully beating heart.
– Kamila Shamsie

Keep reading, and you will find that everything is connected – and that is precisely the point.
– Toronto Star

„[TransAtlantic] is quite simply one of the best, most sustained pieces of fiction I’ve read in some time… [It] remains a novel of true resonance and power.“
– The Independent (UK)

Distinguished by empathy and intelligence, this transformative novel marks a new threshold of writing about the conflict. Colum McCann manages to take it all in without prejudice and with profound feeling for the suffering of all sides. Apeirogon will have a potent effect on all those who read it and, remarkably, could lead to great consequences for the future of this place.
– Raja Shehadeh

An apeirogon is a shape with a countably infinite number of sides – and Colum McCann’s transcendent book is full of hundreds of thought-provoking, emotional segments … McCann turns these haunting true stories into engrossing fiction, and he does so with poetic power“
– independent.co.uk

„McCann performs his own epic balancing act between life and art, writing with stunning lyricism and fluent empathy as he traces the ripple effects of violence and grief, beauty, and the miraculous power of friendship and love, valor and truth.“
– Booklist (starred review)

McCann makes his prose dance across the surface of this ingeniously constructed novel [Let the Great World Spin]… He is a fearless writer.“
– The Telegraph (UK)

Colum McCann is drawn to lives lived, and his vivid, reactive and heartfelt fiction lives and breathes, sighs and weeps.“
– The Irish Times on Transatlantic

Every significant novel is an act of reckless originality. Colum McCann’s Apeirogon is nothing like any book you’ve ever read. Think of reading David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red, or George Saunders’s Lincoln in the Bardo for the first time. Think of discovering an entirely unprecedented, and profoundly true, narrative form. Think about feeling that the very idea of the novel, of what it can be and what it’s capable of containing, has been expanded, forever.
– Michael Cunningham

This is a wondrous book. In an accretion of splendid detail, McCann writes with an amazing abundance of humanity as he describes the age-old story of inhumanity to man. The effect is absolutely staggering, it will bring you to your knees. Writing at the top of his game, McCann brings us a book that we sorely need. It left me hopeful; this is its gift. What a read – !
– Elizabeth Strout

„Apeirogon is a novel of profound empathy with the struggle of ordinary people in conflict. Without moral judgement McCann writes of ruthless oppression and it’s opposition. . . . The mirror he holds up is a stark truthful one and we will see ourselves reflected if we care to look. . . .This is a stunningly well written book. Courageous and necessary, truthful and ultimately hopeful, this may be Colum McCann’s masterpiece.“
– Gabriel Byrne

Now you have to read Apeirogon … Delirious and thrilling, spectacular
– Sunday Times (London)

„This may be McCann’s magnum opus.“
– Chatelaine

What a marvel of a book! Wise, complex and timely. A magnificent achievement“
– Graham Norton

A profound account of pain and healing …The closest recent comparisons – in terms of ambition and intention, if not style – might be Claudia Rankine’s genre defying works on race such as Citizen: An American Lyric or Maggie Nelson’s exploration in The Red Parts and Jane: A Murder of the murder of her aunt, books that transcend the usual categories and set out to challenge and amaze“
– The Guardian

A loving, thoughtful, grueling novel“
– Washington Post

Colum McCann is drawn to lives lived, and his vivid, reactive and heartfelt fiction lives and breathes, sighs and weeps.“
– null The Irish Times on Transatlantic

09/01/2019

In this latest from the National Book Award-winning and New York Times best-selling McCann, the lives of Palestinian Bassam Aramin and Israeli Rami Elhanan do not initially touch. But then Bassam’s daughter Abir is killed by a rubber bullet even as Rami’s daughter Smadar falls victim to a suicide bombing. After learning of each other’s grief, the two fathers reach across borders to work for peace. In geometry, an apeirogon is an imaginary polygon with a countably infinite number of sides, but literature has a way of showing us what’s possible.
– Library Journal

*2019-10-28
An ambitious novel about an Israeli, a Palestinian, and the grief they share in common.

Rami Elhanan and Bassam Aramin both lose their daughters when the girls are still young. Rami’s Smadar dies in an explosion caused by suicide bombers; Bassam’s Abir is killed by a rubber bullet. Rami is Israeli, Bassam Palestinian. They both become advocates for peace in the Middle East. McCann’s (Thirteen Ways of Looking, 2015, etc.) latest novel is a soaring, ambitious triumph: It tells the stories of Rami and Bassam, both based on real people, and their daughters and their land and much else, besides. The novel is splintered into short, numbered segments that count up to 500 before crawling back down to 1. The effect is kaleidoscopic. McCann wheels outward in a widening circuit, not unlike the birds that form a central metaphor that recurs throughout the book. Some segments describe Israeli-Palestinian politics; others are composed of photographs; still others are made up entirely of quotes from figures as disparate as Picasso and Mahmoud Darwish. The result is a sprawling masterpiece but not a perfect one. Rarely does McCann incorporate the voices of women. Smadar and Abir are necessarily rendered silent by their deaths, but McCann doesn’t make much space, either, for Rami’s and Bassam’s wives to inhabit. Nor does he assemble women writers, artists, and intellectuals with anything approaching the frequency with which he defers to figures like Darwish and Borges. Still, his writing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is deeply nuanced and sensitive to the afflictions of both sides. As a whole, the book is a remarkable achievement.

Imperfect but ultimately triumphant, McCann’s latest novel might be his finest yet.
– Kirkus Reviews