NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNERS - FICTION | show finalists

Let the Great World Spin: A Novel by Colum McCann

In the dawning light of a late-summer morning, the people of lower Manhattan stand hushed, staring up in disbelief at the Twin Towers. It is August 1974, and a mysterious tightrope walker is running, dancing, leaping between the towers, suspended a quarter mile above the ground. In the streets below, a slew of ordinary lives become extraordinary in bestselling novelist Colum McCann’s stunningly intricate portrait of a city and its people.

Let the Great World Spin is the critically acclaimed author’s most ambitious novel yet: a dazzlingly rich vision of the pain, loveliness, mystery, and promise of New York City in the 1970s.

Corrigan, a radical young Irish monk, struggles with his own demons . . . [more]

All Timelines (2)

• Tournament of Books - 2010
• National Book Award Winners - Fiction

Reviews (1)

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What a wonderful read. As you may know from other reviews on this site I love historical fiction. But this is sneaky historical fiction. It's really just about an amazing moment in our history. The morning when Philip Petite walked across his tightrope strung across the twin towers. Yes, those twin towers. The ones that are gone now. Those fallen towers. As they were being constructed an amazing thing happened. Philip Petit tightrope walked across them. To learn more about that story I recommend you see Man on Wire. Now, back to this story. This story is really about the characters affected by Philip Petit's walk and I find them to be quite interesting. I enjoy a book that can be so personally character driven and also encompass a bit of history and I believe Colum McCann does that in Let The Great World Spin.