Which leads me to the countless books, articles, photographs, films, and websites I encountered along the way. I want to offer my sincere thanks to the many scholars, scientists, historians and mathematicians whose works I have quoted or referred to, but I have not been able to individually acknowledge. In many cases there were several sources. I have begged, borrowed and copied, then begged and borrowed and copied again. Everyone knows that there are many versions of the truth. In some cases the sources were directly contradictory of one another and even the experts are at odds with one another. In the end the mistakes are all mine, alongside the inventions.
At Random House, Erin Kane, Steve Messina, Simon Sullivan and Holly Webber were remarkably helpful. Thanks to Etgar Keret for permission for the Hahamishia Hakamerit transcript. Thanks to David Byrne, Brian Eno, Pat Woods, Kevin Wong, and Laurie Fabiano for access to the lyrics. My colleagues at Hunter (most especially Peter Carey, Téa Obreht, and Tom Sleigh) deserve great thanks, as does Jennifer Raab, always. Thanks to everyone in the Irish diplomatic corps both in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem/Ramallah, in particular Deirdre Bourke, Tim Reilly, and Jonathan Conlon. Thanks also to everyone associated with Pal Fest and the Jerusalem Book Fair. We get our voices from others: it is, yes, a community of feeling. I traveled all over the world and so many doors were opened for me. My deepest thanks to Josh Sapan and Anne Foley for the cottage in Milford, Pennsylvania—what a place to work, with great memories of Frank McCourt at every turn. Thanks to Mikela Chartoulari for the wonderful house in Greece. To Valérie and Gaël Patout for the house in France. Yehuda Shaul and friends for the hospitality in Israel. Thanks also to the McCann clan, my mother, Sally, in particular. Also Sean and Freda, Roger and RoseMarie Hawke, Issa Jiries Khalil, Sandy Cooter, Mary Ann Stein, Bill Shipsey, Karen and Bayard Hollins, the good folks in Steamboat Springs, Santa Fe, Bad Gastein and all the other places that allowed me to extend my stay: I looked out so many windows during the course of this book.
And, of course, greatest thanks to Rami and Bassam and their families.
Finally, to those who feel compelled (and please do) to contribute to the nonprofit agencies mentioned here, please send your contributions to the Parents Circle Family Forum (theparentscircle.org): they really deserve all the support we can give. Other charities to keep in mind are Combatants for Peace (cfpeace.org), Telos (telosgroup.org), and last but not least, Narrative 4 (narrative4.com).
illustration credits
1ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock Photo
2AFP Contributor
3AP Photo/Max Nash
4Photo by Bruce Krasting (flickr.com/photos/bruce_krasting/6857656826)/CC BY 2.0/cropped from original
5, 6, and 7: mukk/iStock
8Alastair Fyfe at A.Fyfe Rail Operations Consulting Ltd.
9Elizabeth Brown Eagle
10EPA
11Zoltan Balogh
12Material for a film (detail) (Wael Zuaiter’s 1001 Nights), multimedia installation, 3 sound pieces, 1 video, texts, photos, archival material, © Emily Jacir 2004
BY COLUM MCCANN
FICTION
Apeirogon
Thirteen Ways of Looking
TransA tlantic
Let the Great World Spin
Zoli
Dancer
This Side of Brightness
Songdogs
Fishing the Sloe-Black River
NONFICTION
Letters to a Young Writer
The Book of Men (EDITOR)
about the author
COLUM MCCANN is the internationally bestselling author of the novels TransAtlantic, Let the Great World Spin, Zoli, Dancer, This Side of Brightness, and Songdogs, as well as three critically acclaimed story collections and the nonfiction book Letters to a Young Writer. His fiction has been published in over forty languages. He has received many international honors, including the National Book Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, the Pushcart Prize, and an Oscar nomination for his short film Everything in This Country Must. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as the Irish association of artists Aosdána, and he has also received a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres award from the French government. In addition, he has won awards in Italy, Germany, and China. A contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Paris Review, he teaches in the Hunter College MFA Creative Writing program. He lives with his family in New York City, where he is the cofounder of the global nonprofit story exchange organization Narrative 4.
colummccann.com
Facebook.com/colummccannauthor
To inquire about booking Colum McCann for a speaking engagement, please contact the Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau at speakers@penguinrandomhouse.com.
What’s next on
your reading list?
Discover your next
great read!
Get personalized book picks and up-to-date news about this author.
Sign up now.