2009NBA 2009
Let the Great World Spin
Colum McCann · b. 1965 · Ireland
Why it matters
A dozen disparate New Yorkers (a grieving mother, an Irish monk, a young judge) brush against Philippe Petit's real 1974 tightrope walk between the World Trade Center's towers. McCann's National Book Award winner became an unofficial elegy for a city the towers' loss later marked forever.
At a glance
historical fictionpsychological novel
Difficulty 5/10medium pace349 pagesA dozen interwoven narrators shift voice and register, though each individual thread reads clearly.
Deep dive
How a stranger walking a wire between two towers, never once named, becomes the fixed point a scattered, grieving city organizes itself around.
