The book itself attempts to be an apeirogon. McCann uses almost a thousand small chapters (I call them facets) to visually show his reader how there are a multitude of sides regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It’s no small feat to explain the history of the region in a 500-page book.

Apeirogon is not an easy read. It’s heartbreaking, complex, depressing, graphic, tragic, and nuanced. However, this book is necessary in our understanding of other humans. Just as life, humanity, history, art, and religion are intricately interwoven, so is this novel. Best read of 2020 (so far).

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Apeirogon by Colum McCann is the contemporary –historical-fiction (I don’t know how else to describe it) of the path crossed by an Israeli man and a Palestinian man, both who lost young daughters. Mr. McCann is an award winning and bestselling author.

Rami Elhanan, an Israeli, and Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian, live their daily lives in a fractured area of the world. They both negotiate their respective daily challenges until the unthinkable happens when their daughters die violently. Rami’s daughter, Smadar, dies as the victim of a suicide vest. Bassam’s daughter, Abir, dies after she was shot in the head with a rubber bullet.
Smadar was 13.
Abir was 10.

Rami and Bassam learns of each other’s story and recognize the connection they have. While forging a strong friendship, they attempt to use their grief to try and get people to talk and solve problems instead of using violence.

Nothing I write can do justice to this book.

Apeirogon by Colum McCann is an extraordinary book, it’s different in narrative and structure, yet poignant and able to make its point. Mr. McCann uses the real-life tragedies of the Elhanan and Aramin families to review a history of this age old conflict, and the unexpected and innocent casualties it collects along the way.

Some parts of the book are not for the faint of heart, there are graphic descriptions of what happens when you stand next to a suicide bomber, get shot in the head with a rubber bullet, or detonate a suicide vest on your person. The narrative is not straight forward, but is symmetrical, you can read the book forwards or backwards and still get the story.

Mr. McCann tries to put the tragedies, not excuse them, in historical context along with tangents which are somewhat related to either the personal stories, or overall themes. In this way the author succeeds in putting in context events from the far, and recent, past and show us how sometime insignificant events might have large consequences, and people who pay a very personal price. The narrative is simple, but sends a strong message.

The tangents move around in time, past to present, creating an emotional effect which is a testament to the author’s immense talent. The author takes big chances with this book, and the payoff is tremendous.

Skillful and poetic, but bordering on gimmicky. The current trend of nonlinear fiction is not a favorite of mine. This one ends up feeling more intellectual than emotional.

An unique presentation of a heartbreaking story, with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as a backdrop, that will open your eyes and touch your heart.

SUMMARY
These two men are the most unlikely of friends. Rami Elhanan is Israeli, a Jew and the father of a thirteen-year-old daughter. Bassam Aramin is Palestinian, a Muslin, an Arab and the father of a ten-year-old daughter. These two fathers lives intersect when they became members of the Parents Circle, the kind of club no parent wants to be a member of. In 1997, Rami’s daughter, Smadar, becomes the victim of three Palestinian suicide bombers in a Jerusalem shopping area. A decade later, in 2007. Bassam’s daughter, Abir is killed by a rubber bullet by a Israeli border guard, just after purchasing a candy bracelet at a grocery store down the street from her Palestinian school.

Rami and Bassam had been raised to hate one another. And yet, when they heard each other’s stories, they recognized that their tremendous loss connects them. They now work together using their grief and their stories as a path for seeking international peace.

“When you divide death by life you find a circle.”

REVIEW
The term “apeirogon” refers to a shape with a countable but infinite number of sides, which is a perfect title for this inventive and thought-provoking book. The story is nonlinear and is probably unlike anything you’ve ever read before, but well worth the read. Apeirogon is creatively divided into 1,001 informative fragments numbered 1 to 500 and then descending from 500 back to 1.

The fragments are seemingly random and include not just the fictional account of Rami and Bassam’s story, but also references to birds, literature, philosophy, music and art. But it’s all connected, like an apeirogon. It’s an enlightening and thought-provoking read, one you don’t want to miss. The writing will open your eyes and touch your heart.

Author Colum McCann met the two men in 2015 when he visited Israel and Palestine. Their talk took his breath away. This book, will take your breath away as well. McCann has woven an intriguing story full of facts, memories, speculation and imagination. The movie rights for this book have already been purchased by Steven Spielberg.

McCann is an Irish writer of literary fiction. He was born in Dublin, Ireland and now lives in New York. He is distinguished professor of creative writing at Hunter College and has written six novels including TransAtlantic and the National Book Award winning Let the Great World Spin.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I have begun to change myself.”
-Rumi

Publisher Random House
Published February 25, 2020
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

Apeirogon by Colum McCann is an incredible novel that could possibly change your view of the world. In geometry, aperiogon is defined as a shape with a countably infinite number of sides. This is important because the core of McCann's story is true and it revolves around Rami Elhanan, an Israeli and Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian. The men are great friends and they are linked in two ways. They each had a young daughter violently murdered and they both work to encourage peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Bassam co-founded Combatants for Peace in 2005, two years before his daughter Abir was killed by a rubber bullet outside her school. Rami's daughter Smadar fell victim to suicide bombers in 1997 while shopping for books in Jerusalem. This novel is about much more than the central stories. McCann diverges from his main plot to arm his reader with fascinating insights and intricate details. The reader receives multiple sides of the story, and it is this compelling style that proves McCann's genius. Apeirogon must be read and discussed.

This book broke me. It was not a quick read. I slowed down and devoted time and asked for no interruptions. I took breaks to process and find more tissues and really needed a buddy to read it with so we could talk because this book took time. It needed time and deserves time and I almost started reading it again as soon as I was finished.

This novel is the masterpiece Colum McCann was destined to write. While it tells the story of two men, one Israeli and one Palestinian, who lost their daughters under tragic circumstances their friendship and the ways that grief shapes their lives are universal plights. This is a book that should be required reading for anyone who cares about humanity. Interspersed with stories of the amazing birds that inhabit the Middle East and how they are tracked, the story truly is many faceted and skillfully goes back in time to get its meaning across.

I received an advanced copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and I feel fortunate to have had this opportunity. This is the first book I've read by McCann but definitely not my last.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

‘Apeirogon’ is an experimental novel by the wonderful Colum McCann, telling the story of two men -- an Israeli and a Palestinian, who come together in grief after the untimely loss of their daughters. I should have known judging by McCann's other works that this would be based off real people and events, but I went in blind and didn’t realize until the photos started appearing in the text. The story is told in tiny vignettes, sometimes a page long, sometimes only a few words — some pages have 6 chapters on them. Interspersed with the narrative, McCann will casually toss in bits of middle eastern history, bomb making factoids, and religious background information. The narrative jumps all over the place but always focuses back on these two men, Bassam and Rami. It focuses on the pain they constantly feel, and the struggle to try and bring peace to themselves and others. While parts of the book had me weeping (I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like to lose a daughter), other parts were lost on me, probably due to my ignorance on the subject matter. While not my favorite of McCann’s works, it definitely deserves to stand along his previous novels.

3.5/5

Unfortunately I was unable to finish this book. I wanted to like it and tried reading it multiple times. I thought there were beautifully written moments but the format made for a difficult read.

Palestinian Bassam Aramin and Israeli Rami Elhanan find a connection through grief when both have daughters killed by the ongoing conflict. United through tragedy, both hope to find a way towards peace. Based on a true story, McCann's novel pieces together stories, literary quotes, biblical references and even art to convey the depth of grief felt by these two families.

Different than my usual fare, I ended up giving up at about 15%. The story is told in disjointed little segments that were extraordinarily boring and dry. I just could not force myself to read anymore of it.

“In geometry, an apeirogon is a generalized polygon with a countably infinite number of sides. It can be considered as the limit of an n-sided polygon as n approaches infinity. Thus, as more sides are included, it approaches the form of a circle”
McCann has structured his book in such a manner. He takes pieces and parts of history, nature, war, art, and geography, and each becomes a “chapter.” These subjects are further elaborated in subsequent chapters and are not in order. The chapters are very short, a sentence, a paragraph, sometimes a few paragraphs. The chapters count up to 500, then back down to 1, totaling 1001 short chapters as if reflecting Arabian Nights, which is mentioned in the novel. It is an unusual and challenging way to tell a story and is up to the reader to piece it all together. This will appeal to some more than others. I applaud McCann for attempting such an inventive way to tell this story, but I had a very difficult time reading this book as the fragmented style just did not work for me. The book went on many tangents and I found myself losing focus. I would enjoy a beautiful passage, just to have the next one be something completely different, leaving me to wonder if and when what I just read will continue in another short paragraph down the line.
This books is a mix of fiction and non-fiction and crosses centuries and continents. It is heartbreaking, but hopeful. At the forefront of the story are two men, one from Palestine, one from Israel. Both lose their daughters to a bombing and form an unlikely friendship through their grief. They began to work together promoting peace. Upon finishing the book I googled Rami and Bassan to read more of their story. There are so many wonderful articles about these 2 men and their call for peace. For the past 13 years they have traveled and told their stories together as they push for peace and reconciliation on both sides of the conflict.

I apologize to the people who loved and raved about this book!
It is a first read for me by this author.
Many parts I was very taken with the writing, but the format, and the seemingly random streams of thought..I know they all connected in ways, but damn my head hurts.
I appreciated the story and the sadness of the loss these two men endured, tragically losing both their daughters.. and I also love reading about this part of the world, I just wish it had been in a regular novel type format.
A very difficult reading experience for me!

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC!

I struggle with rating Apeirogon. On the one hand it is ambitious and clearly the work of a master. It manages to be incredibly cerebral and also emotional. Its strength is in its intelligence and mastery of language, which is visually descriptive and clean in its prose. Where I struggle is with enjoyability. Not every novel needs to be enjoyable to be appreciated, but the reading experience should still feel worthwhile. For me the lack of a clear narrative made this challenging to get into. It isn’t linear but it even challenges the word narrative as it jumps from one short segment to the next and intersperses facts historical, scientific, and linguistic. I kept waiting to adjust to the style and structure but I only felt absorbed at specific passages rather than the novel as a whole. Everything felt connected and metaphorically meaningful but it was too cerebral for my taste.

To be honest, I have found McCann's other works hard to get through, but Apeirogon was breathtaking and one of the most original works I have read in years. It is a modern classic and rings true to world problems of today. I have pulled segments for some of my theatre students to use in class as monologues. A brilliant breathtaking novel!

I have very mixed feelings about McCann’s most recent hybrid novel Apeirogon. I should preface by saying that I have enjoyed McCann’s previous books and recommended them to many.

Although this novel contains both fictional and non-fictional elements, historical figures, examinations of the arts, bird migration patterns, elemental information about bullets and bombs, concentration camp details, Petit’s tight wire work, lists upon lists of different terms and much more, the story focusses on that of the friendship between two men, Bassam and Rami. Bassam is from Palestine and Rami from Jerusalem and both lost young daughters to violence caused by the opposing side in this relatively small but tension-filled area of the world.

Bassam and Rami come together as friends from opposing cultures to tell their stories and seek support in their quest for peace. They are widely travelled, giving talks about their personal histories, the loss of their daughters and the impact of the Occupation of Palestinians in Israel.

This story has a unique structure to it. It begins by counting multi-length chapters in ascending order and then descending order as it moves towards the completion of the book. Facts are repeated sometimes multiple times. I assume this is for effect and also a small sample of what Rami and Bassam have been doing in their talking series. My thoughts went to that of a tumbleweed, picking up random bits of dust, grass, particles and growing larger.

I picked up so many “facts” of interest in this book but because of its hybrid designation don’t know if the “facts” are subject to scrutiny or simply the author’s imagination. There were too many to constantly be researching for truth.

So, in my humble opinion, I believe there were just too many loosely attached thoughts, ideas, facts alongside a truly important story. I found this distracting from the story of the men, their families, Jewish/Palestinian relations and the focus for peace.

Many of the small stories, facts and ideas would be interesting to read in their own right but here it convoluted the story too much.

Given the heft and complexity of this novel I would love to hear others’ opinions. Maybe I missed the whole point of the novel but let’s talk.

Thank you to @netgalley and @randomhouse for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

I recieved an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I loved this book and will recommend it often!

"As a whole, an apeirogon approaches the shapes of a circle, but a magnified view of a small piece appears to be a straight line. One can finally arrive at any point within the whole. Anywhere is reachable. Anything is possible. Even the seemingly impossible. At the same time, the entirety of the shape is complicit."

I can appreciate that this book is really well written. I envision it at the very least being nominated for some big awards this year - if not outright winning them. But I liken this book to someone handing me an expensive glass of Cabernet Sauvignon. I can appreciate that it's good wine... but it just isn't my jam. I'd much prefer a delicious hazy IPA. Mmm, beer.

Apeirogon largely follows the unlikely friendship between Rami, an Israeli and a Jew, and Bassam, a Palestinian and a Muslim. Both men lost daughters in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict - Rami's daughter Smadar died by being in the blast radius of two Palestinian suicide bombers, and Bassam's daughter Abir was shot in the head by an Israeli border guard. I went into Apeirogon thinking that the meat of the book would focus on this improbable friendship, but I was sorely mistaken.

A good chunk of the book is about Rami's and Bassam's friendship - this is undeniable. But so much of the book is also about such things as tagging birds, tightrope walking, amicable numbers, eating birds, Bassam's time in prison, riding motorcycles, and a whole mess of other seemingly random topics. McCann attempted to make loose connections between these subject matters as he transitioned between one item to the next, but it still felt rather disjointed to me. Additionally, Rami's and Bassam's stories are not told in a linear fashion. It was confusing enough that their stories were interjected among these other tangentially related topics, but the fact that the main story isn't revealed in chronological order made it even more difficult to follow. For example, I didn't realize until about half way through that Smadar's and Abir's deaths actually happened ten years apart - McCann gives the reader the impression that they happened at roughly the same time at the beginning of the book.

Going into this book knowing very little about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict certainly put me at a disadvantage. Granted, I was the one who chose this book, so it's my responsibility to have a base-level knowledge going in. However, I wonder how many other US readers will struggle with this book not knowing all of the historical background. A short blurb in the beginning of the book outlining the conflict would have been much appreciated... but I guess that's what Wikipedia is for.

Learning about Rami's and Bassam's stories was truly fascinating, and I'm really glad their story will now be forever lodged in my brain. It's just that McCann's methodology to get said story into my brain wasn't my personal cup of tea. Or cup of beer. Mmm, beer.

A must read so heart wrenching torn from the headlines the Israeli Palestinian conflict.Two fathers one Israeli one Palestinian and the horrible loss they have in common they both lost their young daughters in the conflict.An amazing read so creative so well written .Will be an award winner and provoke many discussions.#netgalley#randomhouse

It has taken me a few weeks to write this review as I am conflicted about this book. The creativity and writing is a flat out 5 star rating. It is unique as the author weaves together the story with both facts from the actual events and analogies to a wide array of items from the flight patterns of birds (absolutely fascinating facts) to mathematics to books to pipe organs and many more. Somehow I know these analogies and the assortment of random facts all have meaning; meaning that would take me a number of additional reads to fully grasp. There is a rhythm to the author's writing that is special. This book is not an easy read; both due to the complex analogies and to the subject matter. My rating reflects my issues with the actual content of the book. It is marketed as fiction but reads like non-fiction (in the best of ways) and I feel one complete narrative is missing from this story. I do recommend reading this book as it is like no other but then I also recommend reading more on both sides of the complex struggles of the Israelis and Palestinians.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an early release in exchange for a fair and honest review.

4.5 Stars

Apeirogon — a shape with a countably infinite number of sides — shares the stories of those living through the conflict between Palestine and Israel, through two families whose outlooks and lives were changed when the lives of their two daughters were taken on what began as ordinary days, and ended with two families grieving their loss. The journey that brought them together through their grieving was not an immediate one, or an easy one, but a worthwhile one in the end. Through sharing their stories of the loss of their daughters, they were more able to see these infinite sides to each other’s story, which led to understanding, and a friendship.

Based on the lives of real people, Rami Elhanan who is Israeli and his daughter, Smadar, and Bassam Aramin who is Palestinian and his daughter, Abir. Abir was ten years old when a rubber bullet ended her life, Smadar was thirteen. While the feelings of the mothers of Smadar and Abir are shared, the focus is on their fathers, how they met, and how they helped each other find some degree of peace.

The format of this story is somewhat unconventional; it flits back and forth through time as different memories are recalled in one thousand segments that vary in length. Several range from being as short as three words to a sentence or two, one segment has no words, and others are more conventionally chapter length – if short chapters. Some include photographs or quotes from notable figures – some political, others offer varying perspectives. These segments begin at one, go to five hundred, and then back down to one, offering a more encompassing view of the ways these lives were personally affected, their journeys to a beginning of a sense of personal peace, and a broader view of both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A heartbreaking story about love, loss, conflict and life, with a heartfelt plea for peace.


Pub Date: 25 Feb 2020

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Random House Group – Random House