A darkly epic novel about connection, disconnection and destruction – from the New York Times-bestselling, National Book Award-winning, Booker Prize-longlisted author of Let the Great World Spin

**The instant Irish Times top 5 bestseller**

‘Urgent and utterly compelling’ KEVIN BARRY
‘Twist lingers long after you've put it down' GUARDIAN
‘A Gatsby tale for the internet age’ ANNA FUNDER
‘One of our greatest storytellers’ ELIF SHAFAK
‘Masterful ... A surprising, electric book’ IRISH TIMES

Anthony Fennell, a journalist, is in pursuit of a story buried at the bottom of the sea: the network of tiny fibre-optic tubes that carry the world’s information across the ocean floor - and what happens when they break.

So he has travelled to Cape Town to board the George Lecointe, a cable repair vessel captained by Chief of Mission John Conway. Conway is a talented engineer and fearless freediver - and Fennell is quickly captivated by this mysterious, unnerving man and his beautiful partner, Zanele.

As the boat embarks along the west coast of Africa, Fennell learns the rhythms of life at sea. But as the mission falters, tensions simmer - and Conway is thrown into crisis by a terrible, violent tragedy unfolding in the life he has left behind on land.

Then Conway disappears; and Fennell must set out to find him.

As taut and propulsive as a thriller, and a timeless exploration of narrative and truth, Twist is the work of a master storyteller at the height of his powers.

"McCann’s close-focus descriptive prose – taut, compressed, image-rich – flashes like sunken treasure … Few novelists pay such close, visionary, heed to the “true stories of our times”" - FINANCIAL TIMES

"McCann gives his tale the sense of a held breath … Part thriller, part existential mediation on self" - NEW STATESMAN

"

Full of wonder at the scale and beauty of the natural world – and full of anger at humanity’s capacity to wreck it … There are passages of extraordinary vividness, evoked with a power that seems to persuade you that you’re either a participant or a witness ... Builds to a bravura climactic escapade ... I loved the thoughtful, essayistic inquiries into nature and the environment, and the consciousness-raising voyage towards the broken cable … Like Heart of Darkness, Twist lingers after you’ve put it down

"An exhilarating adventure reminiscent of Joseph Conrad, with just a hint of Graham Greene " - MAIL ON SUNDAY

"Masterful, a surprising, electric book ... A wired up story of what it means to be bend yourself into new shapes, and be broken" - IRISH TIMES

"Dazzling ... a plot that uncoils with page-turning urgency ... McCann’s prose has a power and lyrical propulsion that can be quite dazzling … an unexpected denouement that uncoils with page-turning urgency" - ESQUIRE

"Not unlike a thriller … There’s still the same relish of language, character and empathy that’s twice seen McCann make the Booker Prize longlist" - RADIO TIMES, Book of the month

"A Graham Greene-ish thriller … Dark, moving and very entertaining" - OBSERVER, Fiction to look out for in 2025

"A thrilling tale of a man all at sea" - FINANCIAL TIMES, What to read in 2025

"An expert storyteller ... An utterly modern novel" - THE GLOSS

"Beautifully written ... An immense talent ... Possessed of enough heart and empathy to make most writers pale into McCann's formidable shadow" - BUSINESS POST

"With echoes of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Twist by Colum McCann, his follow-up to the acclaimed Apeirogon, follows two Irishmen off Africa as vital underwater cables are repaired, and sabotaged" - IRISH TIMES, Fiction to look out for in 2025

"McCann is an empathy engine" - NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"A great writer prepared to take risks" - DAILY MAIL

"Colum McCann is a very gifted, charming writer; in full, rhapsodic-onrush mode, he is hard to resist" - GUARDIAN

"McCann writes with a ferocious eloquence and a masterly sense of narrative" - SPECTATOR

"Simply stunning … Part thriller and part exploration of narrative and truth. (There are deliberate echoes of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness) … The 21st-century human seems a very broken thing in Twist. And McCann’s novel, penned by a brilliant storyteller at the height of his powers, has a disconcerting ability to help you simultaneously find and lose your bearings" - independent.co.uk

"Film noir meets The Great Gatsby in McCann's deep dive of a novel ... An immersive read destined to win prizes ..." - IRISH INDEPENDENT