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NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY CHICAGO TRIBUNE AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review · NPR · Los Angeles Times · The Boston Globe · The Seattle Times · The Independent
In such acclaimed novels as Let the Great World Spin and TransAtlantic, National Book Award–winning author Colum McCann has transfixed readers with his precision, tenderness, and authority. Now, in his first collection of short fiction in more than a decade, McCann charts the territory of chance, and the profound and intimate consequences of even our smallest moments.
“As it was, it was like being set down in the best of poems, carried into a cold landscape, blindfolded, turned around, unblindfolded, forced, then, to invent new ways of seeing.”
In the exuberant title novella, a retired judge reflects on his life’s work, unaware as he goes about his daily routines that this particular morning will be his last. In “Sh’khol,” a mother spending Christmas alone with her son confronts the unthinkable when he disappears while swimming off the coast near their home in Ireland. In “Treaty,” an elderly nun catches a snippet of a news report in which it is revealed that the man who once kidnapped and brutalized her is alive, masquerading as an agent of peace. And in “What Time Is It Now, Where You Are?” a writer constructs a story about a Marine in Afghanistan calling home on New Year’s Eve.
Deeply personal, subtly subversive, at times harrowing, and indeed funny, yet also full of comfort, Thirteen Ways of Looking is a striking achievement. With unsurpassed empathy for his characters and their inner lives, Colum McCann forges from their stories a profound tribute to our search for meaning and grace. The collection is a rumination on the power of storytelling in a world where language and memory can sometimes falter, but in the end do not fail us, and a contemplation of the healing power of literature.
Praise for Thirteen Ways of Looking
“Extraordinary . . . incandescent.”—Chicago Tribune
“The irreducible mystery of human experience ties this small collection together, and in each of these stories McCann explores that theme in some strikingly effective ways. . . . [The first story] is as fascinating as it is poignant. . . . [The second] captures the mundane and mysterious aspects of shaping characters from the gray clay of words, placing them in realistic settings and breathing life into their lungs. . . . That he makes the story so emotionally compelling is a sign of his genius. . . . The most remarkable [piece] is Sh’khol. . . . Caught in the rushing currents of this drama, you know you’re reading a little masterpiece.”—The Washington Post
“McCann is a writer of power and subtlety and beauty. . . . The powerful title story loiters in the mind long after you’ve read it.”—Sarah Lyall, The New York Times
“[McCann] unspools complex and unforgettable stories in this, his first collection in more than a decade.”—The Boston Globe
“McCann is a passionate writer whose impulse is always toward a generous understanding of his diverse characters.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Powerful, profound, and deeply empathetic, McCann’s beautifully wrought writing in Thirteen Ways of Looking glides off the page.”—BuzzFeed
“McCann weaves the magic that made Let the Great World Spin so acclaimed.”—The Huffington Post
From the Hardcover edition.
In such acclaimed novels as Let the Great World Spin and TransAtlantic, National Book Award–winning author Colum McCann has transfixed readers with his precision, tenderness, and authority. Now, in his first collection of short fiction in more than a decade, McCann charts the territory of chance, and the profound and intimate consequences of even our smallest moments.
“As it was, it was like being set down in the best of poems, carried into a cold landscape, blindfolded, turned around, unblindfolded, forced, then, to invent new ways of seeing.”
In the exuberant title novella, a retired judge reflects on his life’s work, unaware as he goes about his daily routines that this particular morning will be his last. In “Sh’khol,” a mother spending Christmas alone with her son confronts the unthinkable when he disappears while swimming off the coast near their home in Ireland. In “Treaty,” an elderly nun catches a snippet of a news report in which it is revealed that the man who once kidnapped and brutalized her is alive, masquerading as an agent of peace. And in “What Time Is It Now, Where You Are?” a writer constructs a story about a Marine in Afghanistan calling home on New Year’s Eve.
Deeply personal, subtly subversive, at times harrowing, and indeed funny, yet also full of comfort, Thirteen Ways of Looking is a striking achievement. With unsurpassed empathy for his characters and their inner lives, Colum McCann forges from their stories a profound tribute to our search for meaning and grace. The collection is a rumination on the power of storytelling in a world where language and memory can sometimes falter, but in the end do not fail us, and a contemplation of the healing power of literature.
Praise for Thirteen Ways of Looking
“Extraordinary . . . incandescent.”—Chicago Tribune
“The irreducible mystery of human experience ties this small collection together, and in each of these stories McCann explores that theme in some strikingly effective ways. . . . [The first story] is as fascinating as it is poignant. . . . [The second] captures the mundane and mysterious aspects of shaping characters from the gray clay of words, placing them in realistic settings and breathing life into their lungs. . . . That he makes the story so emotionally compelling is a sign of his genius. . . . The most remarkable [piece] is Sh’khol. . . . Caught in the rushing currents of this drama, you know you’re reading a little masterpiece.”—The Washington Post
“McCann is a writer of power and subtlety and beauty. . . . The powerful title story loiters in the mind long after you’ve read it.”—Sarah Lyall, The New York Times
“[McCann] unspools complex and unforgettable stories in this, his first collection in more than a decade.”—The Boston Globe
“McCann is a passionate writer whose impulse is always toward a generous understanding of his diverse characters.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Powerful, profound, and deeply empathetic, McCann’s beautifully wrought writing in Thirteen Ways of Looking glides off the page.”—BuzzFeed
“McCann weaves the magic that made Let the Great World Spin so acclaimed.”—The Huffington Post
From the Hardcover edition.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
A superbly crafted and deeply moving collection of fiction...underscores [McCann's] reputation as a contemporary master * Kirkus * Separate and together, these four works prove McCann a master with a poet's ear, a psychologist's understanding, and a humanitarian's conscience * Publishers Weekly * Quite simply one of the best, most sustained pieces of fiction I've read in some time ... A novel of true resonance and power * Independent on Transatlantic * Beautifully hypnotic ... Those who can't see the point of historical novels will find their answer here -- Emma Donoghue, author of Room Expertly constructed ... The prose is poetically vivid * Observer * Colum McCann is a very gifted, charming writer; in full, rhapsodic-onrush mode, he is hard to resist ... TransAtlantic is deft, well crafted, and broad in its imaginative range * Guardian * Crime and violence shadow the accompanying stories, told from viewpoints including those of a nun recalling the man who raped and tortured her in South America decades earlier, and an author trying to write about a female soldier in Afghanistan * Observer * Like all the best books, Colum McCann's latest ... is about time. Over the course of a novella and three short stories he probes our shifting relationship with it ...It's in the flawless opening novella, which gives the collection its title, that McCann really lets loose ... Thirteen Ways of Looking is a detective story turned inside out ... "Sometimes it seems to me," he says in a note at the end, "that we are writing our lives in advance, but at other times we can only ever look back." In this superlative collection, which surely ranks among his finest work, he manages to express both possibilities at once * Sunday Telegraph * Such is McCann's command of rhythm in this short spark that you could open Thirteen Ways at any page and fall under its spell ... Rich with his trademark lyrical, melancholic, ever so ex-pat Irish prose ... It is going to resonate in your mulling head for days * Big Issue * I had been enjoying the fairground thrill of being willingly rattled by the fictional menace and mortality in these pages that, combined with the energy and playfulness of McCann's writing, made for good reading about bad things. Then the blow of the author's end note, with the spectre of reality (and autobiography) jostling its way into the fiction I had just read. Now I was rattled in a different way -- Arifa Akbar * Independent * A rich, poetic monologue, where memories, words and worlds collide ... You wouldn't necessarily think that an account of a single day in the life of a frail old man could be so entrancing ... McCann, who comes from Dublin, is an intensely literary writer, and his prose thrums with echoes of Beckett, Yeats and Joyce ... What emerges from this rich, linguistic mix is a poignant and beautiful glimpse into the end of a life * Sunday Times * Each character is cleanly drawn, each description rings true ... strange and remarkable ... One of the strengths of McCann's writing is his ability to place himself, and so his reader, in another's body ... surprising and moving ... The story (Sh'khol) wonderfully captures the exacting, awful mystery of love and the danger of loss -- Erica Wagner * Guardian * It is this idea, that reality trumps invention, which drives this beautifully written ... discerning collection from Colum McCann, in which he breaks new ground in his brilliant literary career. Reading these stories is pleasurable and stimulating on a range of levels ... The language is, as always with McCann, delightful. He writes with a sure sense of rhythm, and he has an enviably agile mastery of syntax ... The author's frank note at the back, informing us of the link between real events and the fictional treatment, and his further elaboration of this connection on his website, give to the work an astonishing new dimension, distinguishing it from almost any other fiction * Irish Times * Atmospheric, unsettling ... Thirteen Ways is a clever, slick but movingly tender work, whose tone holds the attention from the start ... McCann's ability to slow the pace of action while allowing his prose to bubble and boil, heightens the febrile mood. And while Thirteen Ways of Looking is unarguably bleak, it is also rich * Herald * McCann is wonderfully good at conjuring up both the judge's present frailties and bemusements and the vibrancy of his past ... chronicled with the author's customary assurance and alertness to detail * * McCann's writing is elegant and ironic, sometimes absolutely beautiful -- Kate Saunders * The Times * A fine collection of novella and three stories, from a supremely talented writer * Sunday Times * Colum McCann achieves great intimacy and poignancy with his shrewd, fluent exploration of the mind's recesses ... Although each is distinct, all four stories are crafted from the same lyrical prose in which every longing, fear and regret is deeply felt * Financial Times * In McCann's latest book, Thirteen Ways of Looking, worlds collide: past and present, fiction and non-fiction, seeing and believing, It comprises one brilliantly polished novella and three short stories and is among McCann's finest ... Made in Manhattan but its roots like that of the city and the author spread deep and wide * RTE Guide * Two other novellas of note: Thirteen Ways of Looking by Colum McCann about a crime, and the ways of looking, as we follow a distinguished old man up to the moment of his death -- Arifa Akbar * Independent * As fine as anything McCann has written ... The judge's life is wonderfully evoked and the story also succeeds as a thriller in which surveillance plays a prominent role. Three short stories complete the book, the last a powerful tale of an elderly nun who confronts the now respectable diplomat who raped and tortured her decades earlier -- John Boland * Irish Times * Each character is cleanly drawn, each description rings true ... One of McCann's strengths is his ability to place himself, and so his reader, in another body * Guardian * Excellent collection ... The old judge's life is richly and convincingly evoked, and the events that lead to his death are unravelled with masterful dramatic irony * Mail on Sunday * This supremely talented and imaginative writer sure knows how to pack a punch * Sunday Times *
Book Description:
From the National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Let the Great World Spin and TransAtlantic, comes a novella and three stories of immediate power and grace
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- PublisherRandom House
- Publication date2015
- ISBN 10 0147521580
- ISBN 13 9780147521583
- BindingAudio CD
- Rating
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