Most internet signals travel via hair thin fiber optic cables resting on the sea floors. Breaks happen and when they do a repair ship is launched to locate and repair the break.

“Twist” takes us deep into murky motivations and connections as our narrator, Irish journalist Fennel, joins a repair crew based in South Africa led by chief of mission Conway, a master free diver and shadowy character with hints of Joseph Conrad’s Kurtz. Conway’s domestic partner, Zanele, and young twins are off to London, where Zanele will star in “Waiting for Godot” and will find fame on stage and screen.

Those ideas all weave through the tale—acting, waiting, obsession, madness. Or do they? In the end, it’s murky and despite Fennel’s obsession with Conway and Zanele and his crossing a continent to follow the clues, he’s left with only a hint of a picture and we are left with more questions than answers.

And that’s okay. The world Colum McCann paints for us is intriguing. Learning about fiber optics and the cable repair industry is fascinating. I feel like the prose too often got in the way of the story, slowed me down unnecessarily. I heard an interview about the book with McCann in which he read a section that felt overwritten as I read it but when I heard it it was perfect so perhaps this would be good one to listen to as an audiobook.

Thanks to #NetGalley and Random House for an ARC in exchange for this review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic copy to read in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first book I have read by this author and I don't know what I was expecting. It was compelling and thought provoking in a literary fiction kind of way. I was hoping for more fast-paced action based on the description. Overall the story was really good but I just felt like it could have had more.

In 2019, Anthony Fennell is given the assignment of writing a magazine article about the work of the men who repair the underwater cables that transmit the information that runs today’s world. He travels to South Africa where he meets John Conway who agrees to let him sail with his crew on their next repair mission. Fennell also meets Conway’s lover, the South African actress, Zanele. She is about to head to England to appear in a play. The book is written from Fennell’s point of view, as he attempts to tell the story of Conway. “I am not sure that anybody, anywhere, is truly aware of what lay at the core of Conway and the era he, and we, lived through — it was a time of enormous greed and foolish longing and, in the end, unfathomable isolation.”

The writing here was lovely, but ultimately I thought that the author left too many gaps in the characterization of Conway and Zanele. Conway was meant to be a mysterious shape shifter, but even so I would have liked to have been given some clue into his inner life. A section near the end of the book shifts to a description of Conway’s activities after the cable is repaired, but we still get no hints about why he is doing these things, which frankly make no sense at all. The book was also kind of a jumble of issues - middle aged angst, lack of connection, ocean pollution, terrorism, Covid, etc.

I’ve had mixed experiences with this author’s books but some, like “Apeirogon”, “Thirteen Ways of Looking” and “Dancer” are so good that I will keep reading anything he writes. I also like the way that he never repeats himself. 3.5 stars

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

In the end, it feels like Conway is a side character, which feels a little odd. And while you get a sense that book is focused on repair, in reality, it’s focused on brokenness.

3+ stars

Lyrical prose and storytelling must be in the water in Ireland, and Colum McCann is one of their beloved authors. In his latest novel, Twist, McCann explores the depths of the sea as well as of human emotion. Written in the voice of struggling writer Anthony Fennel, it examines the lives of two very different men, and the relationship that develops between them. John Conway is the captain of a ship whose mission is to repair the underwater cable that connects the world to the internet. Fennel is assigned to write an article about the break and repair. Conway is not only the captain of the ship and expert at locating the broken cable and repair, he’s also one of the best free divers in the world. His life fascinates Fenni ng to the point of obsession.
The story will satisfy the most demanding of both mystery/thriller readers but quench the thirst for beautiful language for literary readers as well. My favorite parts were the descriptions of the sea and Africa and the many reflections on time. Twist was released on March 25, 2025, by Hyperion Random House. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC of this beautiful novel.

Colum McCann’s Twist is a thought-provoking and intricately woven novel that explores the intersection of technology, humanity, and the unseen forces that shape our world. Set against the backdrop of undersea fiber-optic cables—the invisible arteries of global communication—it raises compelling questions about repair, destruction, and the nature of truth itself.

With poetic and layered prose, McCann navigates a story that is as much about its characters as it is about the structures—both physical and ideological—that bind and divide us. His exploration of technological dependence, environmental decay, and the fragility of human connection is both timely and deeply resonant. Twist does not offer easy answers but instead presents a meditation on the consequences of our actions, the stories we tell ourselves, and the limits of repair.

This is a novel that lingers in thought long after its final pages, offering a nuanced look at an unexpected yet essential topic. Many thanks to the author and publisher for providing an advance copy via Random House in exchange for an honest review.

I can recall the days of the internet's infancy, the sheer excitement at the possibilities it would bring to our world mixed with the skepticism that it would deliver on all that it promised. Hefty encyclopedias had long been our gateway to knowledge, but the internet threatened to upend that entirely. Even with its screeching dial-up tones, sluggish speeds, and frequent outages, it changed the world in ways we never could have anticipated. Now, with Wi-Fi considered a basic necessity and AI poised to disrupt our lives once again, we are still grappling with the consequences of our hyper-connected existence.

Our dependence on technology is becoming more prevalent each day, but are we actually more connected to each other? In his newest novel, Twist, author Colum McCann grapples with this question, forcing us to contemplate the fractures that have formed in our increasingly interconnected lives.

"Mine has been a lifetime of dropped connections."

At 47, Irish writer Anthony Fennell fears his life has plateaued. His novels saw modest success, his plays fared only slightly better, and his personal life is in shambles. Divorced, estranged from his teenage son, and drowning in self-doubt (and whiskey), he’s desperate for a break.

Most of the internet’s data travels through fiber optic cables lying deep beneath the ocean. Cables that, from time to time, snap. And when they do, someone has to fix them. Out of the blue, a magazine editor offers Anthony an assignment to cover the dangerous work of repairing these underwater lifelines. He’s less intrigued by the technicalities of the cables themselves and more by the deeper story they symbolize. He plans to tell a tale of connection, resilience, and restoration.

Joining a deep-sea repair crew led by the enigmatic John Conway, an expert free diver/engineer, Anthony embarks on a journey unlike any other. Isolated at sea with a diverse crew and miles of ocean in every direction, he finds himself drawn into their mission to reconnect the world. But as the cables pulse with the world’s conversations, they also carry news that will change the course of the journey and Anthony's life forever.

Twist is a fitting title for a novel that seeks to encapsulate the vastness of humanity within a relatively self-contained narrative. Colum McCann’s latest book explores the enormity of the world. There are the sprawling oceans, the cables running beneath them, and the intricate web of connectivity they sustain. Yet, at its core, this is a quietly intimate story.

Anthony is a man searching for purpose, and in John Conway, he encounters someone who, at least on the surface, seems to have found his. Conway is singularly skilled, excelling in his dangerous yet crucial work. But his past remains elusive. Even when Anthony meets Conway’s lover and learns more about his personal life, he is left with more questions than answers. The journey toward meaning is anything but straightforward.

As the novel twists through revelations and unexpected turns, certainty remains just out of reach. Twist becomes a meditation on connection. McCann urges us to seek it not just through technology but in the real world through conversations, experiences, and acts of love. While at times challenging and even frustrating, it is ultimately a novel that compels us to reflect on the bonds we have forged in our own lives and the path we traverse in finding our own sense of being.

This book explores the world of connections and communications – both interpersonal and physical. Protagonist Anthony Fennell is an Irish writer researching an article about the undersea cables that provide the infrastructure for global communications. He travels to South Africa where he meets the Chief of Mission of a repair ship, John Conway, a fellow Irishman, who introduces Fennell to his wife, Zanele, a black South African actress, and their twins. It is narrated in first person by Fennell looking back on what happened. The storyline follows Fennell’s interactions (and growing obsession) with Conway, their experiences with repairs of breaks in the underseas cables, Zanele’s experiences in London, and a mystery related to Conway.

It is a beautifully written literary work that addresses timely and relevant themes. Many (if not most) people are unaware how much of our global communication depends on these undersea fiberoptic cables, and that breaks in them could have significant consequences. It is filled with literary references, which I enjoyed discovering. I think this work may be a modern retelling of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. At the very least, there are many allusions and parallels.

I think the author does a fabulous job of drawing links between the characters’ personal stories and the work they are performing – both Conway at sea and Zanele as an actor. It comments on the importance of direct personal relationships, which are dwindling in this age of technology. It contains elements of philosophy while telling a compelling story and commenting on the state of the world. I loved it.

This novel was a story of connection, and isolation told through Anthony Fennell, and Irish journalist who was assigned to cover the crew in South Africa that repairs the underwater cable that carries global communication. While the subject is one that is rarely considered, we all use the internet daily and the book is about much more than the repair.
The story starts in CapeTown where the main character meets the mission chief, Conway, a fellow Irishman, whose partner, Zenele, is an actor who is leaving for England to perform in Waiting for Godot. The men become drinking buddies and the author delves into Fennell's thoughts, daily life, and background.
Part 2 describes the trip to repair the deep ocean cables and the men onboard as Fennel gets to know them and their assignments.
The last part, described Fennell's obsession with Conway, his life and connections after he (Conway) has disappeared. it is introspective, but very slow paced.
The writing is beautiful but I felt that it bogged down the story.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. The opinions expressed are my own.

Fantastic story that has drama, mystery and interpersonal relationships. I really enjoyed the characters and the fast plot kept the story moving

3.5-4 stars
A reporter is assigned to the story of how underwater fiber, which carries all of the world's data, is repaired when a break occurs. But the real story is the reporter's obsession with the mission chief and his life.

I thought the parts about the ocean, diving, and the cable repair process were all quite interesting. However, I didn't really get the main character's obsession with the other guy. Didn't really get the other guy, either. ;)

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free e-ARC of this book

I loved Apeirogon and had high expectations for Twist. Glimmers of what made me love Apeirogon shone through at times, but I mostly felt as though I was waiting for the story to end.

"I had a feeling that I had exhausted myself and that if I was ever going to write again, I would have to get out into the world. What I needed was a story about connection, about grace, about repair." -from narrator Anthony Fennell.

Twist by Colum McCann is a story with connection, grace, and repair. It's not an easy novel to summarize. Fennell is a journalist who's kind of untethered and gets an assignment to profile a ship based in South Africa that maintains and repairs the undersea cables supplying the world's communications. Sounds a bit dry but in McCann's hands it's anything but.

John Conway is in charge of the operation. There are shades of Heart of Darkness, Moby Dick, and Apocalypse Now in his character (and references in Fennell's tale). There's commentary on life pre and post internet, instant gratification. There's a mystery that Fennell alludes to in the beginning of his narration that is slowly revealed.

The prose is immersive. We're on the ship with the crew, in the middle of nowhere, sailing to the mission. Once again McCann propels the reader into a new world, a slice of life, in his inimitable style. I was transported.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the Advance Reader Copy. (pub date 3/25/2025).

Review published in Sunday, March 22, 2025 edition of Charleston Gazette Mail

TWIST by Colum McCann, March 25, 2025, Random House, 256 pages.

Colum McCann, author of the seminal LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN (winner of the National Book Award, and a truly fantastic book) and Oscar nominee (for a short film - I did not know this, but found out when I was double checking the page count on this novel, and on the very day after this year’s Academy Awards. For those keeping track, Adrien Brody is still talking.) returns to his Irish roots here with main character Anthony Fennell, an Irish journalist and playwright. He is assigned a story about the underwater cables that carry all the information of the world in tiny, fiber optic tubes and how they sometimes break, thousands of feet below the sea: “Our lives, even the unruptured ones, bounce around on the seafloor.”

Fennell travels to the west coast of Africa, where he learns about the people who repair these cables and he meets another Irishman, John Conway, a higher-up chief of mission on a cable repair ship. Conway is an enigmatic engineer and a free diver capable of reaching unbelievable depths. He’s in love with actress Zanele, who is preparing to travel to London, where she’ll appear in a production of “Waiting for Godot” - which will serve as a metaphor for climate change.

The cable has broken due to a catastrophic flood in the Congo. It has already caused a lack of Wi-Fi and massive internet outage in South Africa. If another cable would break, all of Africa would break. Everything around the world would start to slow down. The disaster would be beyond description. The cable stretches from London to Cape Town in a canyon 13,000 feet deep. These are the things on which the world balances.

We know within the first thirty or so pages what will happen. It is how we get there that is key.

Both Fennell and Conway have issues with alcohol. For Fennell, who has a sixteen year old son in Chile he hasn’t written to in five years, “it was a time of enormous greed and foolish longing and, in the end, unfathomable isolation.”

While at sea, the men face many fundamental questions about life, love and, yes, connection. In an incredibly fractured world, are we able to make connections any longer, when things become broken, or are the ruptures permanent?

In the end there are three breaks that must be repaired, which means the crew and Fennell will be at sea for weeks, maybe longer. Days of traveling, due to each breach, then more days of looking for the breaks, which are incredibly difficult to pinpoint. As the first break is being repaired, tragedy strikes in London, but no one can leave the ship, so Conway remains.

Ultimately the book also covers narrative, and truth - the stories we tell and what is true within them. It reads almost like a thriller and is another excellent book by McCann.

I'm struggling with how to review this book. The subject matter was generally interesting and taught me things I was unaware of, but not particularly exciting. The characters were decent, complicated but not especially noteworthy. But the writing. There was something about the writing that took what I found to be a mediocre subject matter (at least for me) and turned it into this collection of words and sentences that awaken your senses and let you experience the beauty of the written word. I truly cannot explain what pulled me in about this book, because it should have fallen flat for me. Instead, I just let myself be pulled into the rhythm of the writing, and to hell with what I was actually reading about.

🚢 For my friends who enjoy ruminating about human behavior.

TWIST by Colum McCann (narrated by the author)

🎧Thanks, @prhaudio, for the #gifted audiobook #PRHAudioPartner #sponsored (Available 25 Mar 25), and Random House for the review copy via NetGalley. 8 hours, 3 minutes

A struggling novelist accepts a journalistic assignment: write about a crew who repairs the ruptured underwater cables that carry the world’s information. “Satellites accounted for only a trickle of internet traffic. The muddy wires at the bottom of the sea were faster, cheaper, and infinitely more effective than anything up there in the sky.” While onboard, he becomes fascinated with the mysterious crew leader and uses the mission and his observations as a framework to explore human nature and technology.

While I enjoyed the audiobook (it is always a treat to have fiction narrated by the author, and his Irish accent is delicious), this one is better absorbed via the eye. As an audiobook, I was swept away by the story when the focus should have been the philosophy and McCann’s exceptional prose. “The clocks fell in upon themselves. Everything went fast and everything went slow at the same time. Months leapfrogged one another. Even whole years seemed to disappear. Time stepped up behind us and delivered a blow to the back of our heads. Logic was mangled. The times were concussed.”

Very interesting book about the cables which run under the oceans all over the world and are the real support for our communication systems.
Colum McCann gives us some great insight into how these systems work, how vulnerable they might be and how dependent we are on them.
The story also focuses on the commitment of those who spend time working to find and repair the cables when there are breaks.

The story is told in 1st person which makes it feel more like a memoir than a novel. The personal lives of the crew, and the "writer" of the story are touched on as they try to do their jobs and navigate life on land.

The story was educational and thought provoking. The first person narrative wasn't my preferred technique..

Basically a book about the communication cables under the ocean and repairing them. This takes place in the ocean off South Africa. An Irish journalist, Anthony, who meets up with a fellow Irishman there who works on the ships that repairs these cables. He meets John and his partner Zanele before heading out on the ship with him.

This wasn't the propulsive mystery I had hoped for and the ending was not satisfying, but the writing is very literary for those who enjoy a literary story of something not written about - these huge cables under the ocean and those who dive down to repair them.

My thanks to Net Galley and Random House for an advanced copy of this e-book.

It is very difficult to write a review on a narrative of a writer not quite writing a book. If you hadn't known the technology of intercontinental communication cables at the bottom of the sea, this narrative is fascinating if you ever wondered how our near instantaneous telephone and email/texts get across the world so quickly.

Anthony Fennell, an Irish journalist, takes to the high seas in a ship tasked with finding breaks in the cables, and repairing them, oftentimes thousands of feet below. John Conway, the Program Manager for the repairs is a free diver and engineer. Fennell, an landlubber, of course gets seasick but develops relationships with many of the crew in order to learn more about their jobs.

It is a pretty quick read with a major twist after Conway's disappearance as Covid-19 hits.

No spoilers ...

Thank to Netgalley for the pre-release copy, the book was published yesterday.

Colum McCann can write! I am not a tech person, nor do I have an engineering type of brain, so the fact that McCann was able to keep me turning the pages of his latest novel, Twist, a literary mystery revolving around underwater cable technology and repair, is saying something. I have to admit that I didn’t know that much of our communications are transported by means of cable dwelling deep within our oceans.

Our narrator in Twist is Anthony Fennell, an Irish journalist barreling into mid-life. He’s had his share of ups and downs romantically and in his career. We meet Fennell as he is offered a job to cover the repair of deep ocean cables. These are the very cables that keep our web-based lives intact. While researching for his story he meets a fascinating couple, Conway and Zenele, who leave an indelible impression upon him, which continues to drive him forward in both his work and his own understanding of the world.

In the blurb, Twist, is described as propulsive, but for me this book was much more of a slow burn. Readers should know that the first half of the book covers a lot of ground on cable fissures, locations and repairs. The plot is advancing throughout, but slowly in the first half, with a more propulsive second half. That being said, this book moves in fits and starts. Just when I would find myself drifting, McCann would add a small revelation or twist, re-engaging me.

As compelling as the descriptions of cable repair were, this book lacked character depth, especially in Conway and Zanele. Additionally, I would say that another character in the story that was missing something was the ocean itself. Since much of this book takes place in and around the ocean, more richly descriptive language and observations of what lies within our great bodies of water would have been welcome for this reader.

I liked this book. It was well-written and I learned a lot, but I wanted more. If you enjoy slow burn literary fiction with a bit of a mystery, and want to learn more about the hardware which enables us to live within a global society, Twist by Colum McCann, might be the read for you.

3.5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and and Random House for an ARC of Twist by Colum McCann, in exchange for my honest review.