Quick Book Reviews Blog

It’s August 1974, and the summer has been very hard for the people of New York, not only melting them alive but also bringing the Watergate scandal as well as the unforgettable and senseless Vietnam War . However, on one day the entire city stood still, as Philippe Petit, a tightrope walker, performed his craft on a cable suspended between the World Trade Center towers.  In Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann, Philippe Petit’s apparition in trial marks the point where we are taken on a sort of odyssey through New York, looking into the lives of ten different people, including a Priest, heroin-addicted prostitutes and grieving mothers.

Though many of you may not be familiar with him, Colum McCann is one of the most celebrated authors on an international scale, even winning the National Book Award for Let the Great World Spin . He is known as being one of the most profound and enthralling storytellers out there, and I believe he confirms that line of thinking in his latest work, TransAtlantic .  Basically, it tells three separate stories, set in different countries and different time periods. The first one takes place in Newfoundland in 1919 as two pilots try to fly across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping, plotting their course for Ireland.