NOVEL OF THE YEAR SHORTLIST

Apeirogon by Colum McCann, Shortlisted for the Dalkey Novel of the Year Award 2021

Colum McCann is the author of seven novels and three collections of stories. His most recent novel, TransAtlantic, was longlisted for the Man Booker 2013, and his previous novel, Let the Great World Spin, won the National Book Award and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and was a New York Times bestseller. He lives in New York.

About: Apeirogon by Colum McCann

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.

Reviews

"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

Judges comments

“Combines originality in form with moments of great beauty. This book is bursting with empathy. Its structure is breath-taking and its hybridity extraordinary.  An extraordinary achievement.”

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