Apeirogon cover art

Apeirogon

a novel about Israel, Palestine and shared grief, nominated for the 2020 Booker Prize

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Apeirogon

By: Colum McCann
Narrated by: Colum McCann
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Bloomsbury presents Apeirogon written and read by Colum McCann.

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 BOOKER PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIX MÉDICIS AND THE PRIX FEMINA
WINNER OF THE PRIX DE MEILLEUR LIVRE ETRANGER

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A BBC BOOK OF 2020

CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE SUNDAY TIMES, OBSERVER, GUARDIAN, i PAPER, FINANCIAL TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, SCOTSMAN, IRISH TIMES, BBC.COM, WATERSTONES.COM

‘A wondrous book. It left me hopeful’ Elizabeth Strout
‘You have to read Apeirogon’ Sunday Times
‘Nothing like any book you’ve ever read’ Michael Cunningham
‘Quite extraordinary’ Kamila Shamsie

The novel of a lifetime about two men and their daughters: divided by conflict, yet united in grief.

Rami Elhanan and Bassam Aramin live near one another – yet they exist worlds apart. Rami is Israeli. Bassam is Palestinian. Rami’s license plate is yellow. Bassam’s license plate is green. It takes Rami fifteen minutes to drive to the West Bank. The same journey for Bassam takes an hour and a half.

Both men have lost their daughters. Rami’s thirteen-year-old girl Smadar was killed by a suicide bomber while out shopping with her friends. Bassam’s ten-year-old daughter Abir was shot and killed by a member of the border police outside her school. There was a candy bracelet in her pocket she hadn’t had time to eat yet.

The men become the best of friends.

In this epic novel – named for a shape with a countably infinite number of sides – Colum McCann crosses centuries and continents, stitching time, art, history, nature and politics into a tapestry of friendship, love, loss and belonging. Musical, muscular, delicate and soaring, Apeirogon is the novel for our times.

'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©2020 Colum McCann (P)2020 Penguin Random House LLC Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Metaphysical & Visionary Political Middle East Africa Crusade Iran
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Critic Reviews

Nothing like any book you’ve ever read ... 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 ... All I can really tell you is, read McCann’s book. It’s an important book (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 affect 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)
Now you have to read Apeirogon ... Delirious and thrilling, spectacular
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"
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
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
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
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
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
A loving, thoughtful, grueling novel
All stars
Most relevant
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is complicated and Colum McCann’s story responds with sophistication, sensitivity, nuance and depth. It is a great tribute to those on all sides searching for peace. I enjoyed listening to McCann’s narration - including his rhythm and Irish accent - and will certainly look out for his other novels.

Mesmerising

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Thought provoking brilliant and important …cried all the way through . Beautiful and moving .A must read

Astounding

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As a reader with general knowledge of the IsraelPalestine conflict but no more, this was thought provoking and compelling listening. The novel format presents challenges as an audio book but the narration (by the author) is wonderful. There are 1001 chapters of fact and fiction, with many chapters just a phrase long - each providing a segue into a new tangent, relevant to the main story. Each chapter is prefaced by the chapter number which can be distracting at times - at other times it makes for a moment to savour. Beautifully written, angry, tender, funny, heartbreaking.... go on the journey.

Conflict and grief on a macro and micro scale

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Made up of 1001 chapters. Many chapters just a few words the longest about a page but each chapter can contain a greater story in itself. The overall story wasn’t what won it for me but the stories within the chapters. It lead me to research more from some chapters just out great interest.

Many stories within the story

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This is so sad but with the listen. It humanises a situation that many in the world have become desensitised to. It also highlights the power of the politicians, the press, the lies people tell for their own benefit or protection and how it’s pretty much the little guy who always loses. My only difficulty was how the chapters jumped around. Friends who read it in hard copy also made the same comment.

Harrowing

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