Colum McCann

A rich vision of the pain, loveliness, mystery, and promise of New York City in the 1970s. A radical young Irish monk struggles with his own demons as he lives among the prostitutes in the middle of the burning Bronx. A group of mothers gather in a Park Avenue apartment to mourn their sons who died in Vietnam, only to discover just how much divides them even in grief. A young artist finds herself at the scene of a hit-and-run that sends her own life...

Zoli Novotna, a young woman raised in the travelling Gypsy tradition, is a poet by accident as much as desire. As fascism spreads over 1930s' Czechoslovakia, Zola and her grandfather flee to join a clan of fellow Romani harpists. Sharpened and inspired by reading books, Zoli becomes the symbol of a supposedly brave new world of tolerance in the Soviet Union. But as her fame grows and her skills deepen, the ruling Communists begin to use her for

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A tale spanning 150 years and two continents reimagines the peace efforts of democracy champion Frederick Douglass, Senator George Mitchell and World War I airmen John Alcock and Teddy Brown through the experiences of four generations of women from a matriarchal clan. Newfoundland, 1919: Aviators Jack Alcock and Arthur Brown set course for Ireland as they attempt the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Dublin, 1845 and '46: On an international...