Name: Let the Great World Spin
ISBN: 9780812973990

Colum McCann

In 1974 Manhattan, a radical young Irish monk struggles with personal demons while making his home among Bronx prostitutes, a group of mothers shares grief over their lost Vietnam soldier sons, and a young grandmother attempts to prove her worth.

A Novel

Let the Great World Spin

a novel

Let the great world spin

Jun Angelo Cabuguas

woah. such a wonderful and captivating read.

linda

Set in the bustling streets of 70s New York City, this book features a colorful cast of characters - an Irish priest, a hooker, a judge, an avant-garde artist, and a tight-rope walker - who have little in common save the tremendous loss and adversity they have undergone. In this stunning collection of intricately woven vignettes, McCann shows how we impact the lives of others in ways that are unbeknownst to ourselves. He concludes the book, "The world spins. We stumble on. It is enough." McCann's writing brings out the tragic beauty of each story and reminds us of our shared humanity.

Alyssa C Smith

Richard Hankins

One August morning in 1974, a tightrope walker makes his way between 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 a city and a people. Corrigan, a radical, young Irish monk, struggles with his demons as he lives among the prostitutes in the burning Bronx. A group of mothers gathers in a Park Avenue apartment to mourn their sons who have died in Vietnam, only to discover how much divides them even in their grief. Farther uptown, Tillie, a 38-year-old grandmother, turns tricks alongside her teenaged daughter, determined not only to take care of her "babies" but also 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, drawn together by hope, beauty and the tightrope walker's "artistic crime of the century." Let the Great World Spin is McCann's most ambitious work to date and has been hailed as an American masterpiece.

Let the Great World Spin A Novel

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