NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A quite extraordinary novel. Colum McCann has found the form and voice to tell the most complex of stories, with an unexpected friendship between two men at its powerfully beating heart.”—Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire FINALIST FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD • LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE • WINNER OF THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS … AWARD • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Independent • The New York Public Library • Library Journal
From the National Book Award–winning and bestselling author of Let the Great World Spin comes an epic novel rooted in the unlikely real-life friendship between two fathers.
Bassam Aramin is Palestinian. Rami Elhanan is Israeli. They inhabit a world of conflict that colors every aspect of their lives, from the roads they are allowed to drive on to the schools their children attend to the checkpoints, both physical and emotional, they must negotiate.
But their lives, however circumscribed, are upended one after the other: first, Rami’s thirteen-year-old daughter, Smadar, becomes the victim of suicide bombers; a decade later, Bassam’s ten-year-old daughter, Abir, is killed by a rubber bullet. Rami and Bassam had been raised to hate one another. And yet, when they learn of each other’s stories, they recognize the loss that connects them. Together they attempt to use their grief as a weapon for peace—and with their one small act, start to permeate what has for generations seemed an impermeable conflict.
This extraordinary novel is the fruit of a seed planted when the novelist Colum McCann met the real Bassam and Rami on a trip with the non-profit organization Narrative 4. McCann was moved by their willingness to share their stories with the world, by their hope that if they could see themselves in one another, perhaps others could too.
With their blessing, and unprecedented access to their families, lives, and personal recollections, McCann began to craft Apeirogon, which uses their real-life stories to begin another—one that crosses centuries and continents, stitching together time, art, history, nature, and politics in a tale both heartbreaking and hopeful. The result is an ambitious novel, crafted out of a universe of fictional and nonfictional material, with these fathers’ moving story at its heart.
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This is a wondrous book. In an accretion of splendid detail, Colum McCann writes with an amazing abundance of humanity as he describes the age-old story of inhumanity to man. The effect is absolutely staggering — it will bring you to your knees. Writing at the top of his game, McCann brings us a book that we sorely need. It left me hopeful; this is its gift. What a read!
I have never read anyone who writes like Coulm McCann.
Non Fiction book that makes you think about so many things and revisit the history you’ve been taught
McCann is one of my favorite writers. His prose is exquisite and lyrical, clearly showing his background as a poet. This novel is based on 2 real people: a Palestinian and a Jewish Israeli, both who lost their daughters to the local violence. The novel is a well-meaning call for peace and understanding. Unfortunately, the narrative often wonders off into experimental prose, with repeated passages about birds and wildlife in the area, which has no direct connection to the disjointed story. Unless you are specifically interested in the tragic situation in the middle-east, I suggest you read any of McCann’s other novels (e.g. Transatlantic, The Other Side of Brightness, Zoli, or Let The Great World Spin), all of which are wonderful.
I’d been trying to make peace on social media and been hit with hate. The journeys of Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan show that rage is rooted in fear, and that peacemaking is often mistaken for betrayal and lack of patriotism. What a great example these brave men have set.
“Driving while Palestinian” also resonated – the humiliation of interrogation, the threat of being yanked from the car and beaten, the constant intimidation. It’s all too familiar.
This novel ranks right up with Sari Nusseibeh’s Once Upon a Country for illuminating the conundrum of Israel.
Apeirogon—a generalized polygon with a countably infinite number of sides—an apt analogy to the state of affairs in Israel and Palestine.
Inspired by the real-life friendship of Palestinian, Bassam Aramin, and Israeli, Rami Elhanan, two men who have lost their daughters, one by a suicide bomber, the other by a trigger happy-member of the Israeli army. In their story, told in short chapters that often don’t seem to have any connection to each other, McCann manages to weave all these bits into a fascinating and educational masterpiece.
Review: Alex Preston
Mon 24 Feb 2020 07.00 GMT
“…the desperation of the situation has brought forth a work of art whose beauty, intelligence and compassion may go some way to changing things. Is it absurd to suggest that a novel might succeed where generations of politicians have failed? Perhaps, but then ‘Apeirogon’ is the kind of book that comes along only once in a generation.
Presumptuous to expect a novel to succeed when generations of politicians have failed, but if any can, Apeirogon comes closed to having the power to do so.
BLURB:
From celebrated Irish writer Colum McCann comes a dazzling new novel set in Occupied Palestine and Israel. In an astonishing act of the imagination, McCann illuminates the political situation that has riven the region for more than seventy years in a completely new light. Using a fascinating blend of real events and people, he fictionalizes their stories. As the author says, “This is a hybrid novel with invention at its core, a work of storytelling which, like all storytelling, weaves together elements of speculation, memory, fact and imagination.”
McCann tells the story of Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian, and Rami Elhanan, an Israeli, and how they came together after the terrible loss of both of their daughters, one to suicide bombers and the other to Israeli police. Parents from both sides who have lost loved ones gather together in a Parents Circle to tell their stories, to heal, and to never forget their unimaginable losses.
Deploying a myriad of seemingly unrelated historical, cultural and biographical snapshots, this highly original and inventive novel reframes the never-ending Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The result is a breath-taking narrative based on events that actually happened.
McCann says, “Bassam and Rami have allowed me to shape and reshape their worlds. Despite these liberties, I hope to remain true to the actual realities of their shared experiences.”
Apeirogon is a completely mesmerizing novel. Driven by a compelling voice, Colum McCann has written a powerful and haunting narrative that is simply masterful in its universal implications.
http://www.darlenejonesauthor.com
It made me cry to think that people have to go through such trauma and horror. But that these two men forgave their “enemies” and tried to bring people together is truly inspirational.
McCann’s latest demonstrates the power of empathy–something sadly missing from the hearts of many people these days. Set in contemporary Israel, the novel tells the real-life stories of Rami Elhanon, an Israeli, and Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian, two men who have suffered greatly from the conflicts over the homeland. Raised to view one another as the enemy, these fathers were brought together by personal tragedy and joined forces to work towards a peaceful settlement of the centuries-old dispute. In the 1990s, Rami’s 13-year old daughter, Smadar, while shopping with friends, was killed in a suicide bombing. Ten years later, Bassam’s daughter Abir, aged 10, was struck and killed by a rubber bullet fired by a nervous (and possibly trigger happy) teenage soldier while coming out of a candy store across the street from her school. The grieving fathers meet at a parents’ support group whose members not only offer one another support but who feel compelled to stop the hostilities. Their shared suffering leads to an empathy that allows them to transcend the political and religious differences and centuries of conflict and hatred.
While the novel is structured around memories related to McCann by Rami and Bassam and is enhanced by McCann’s research, it is not simply biographical. What he has succeeded in doing is to convey what it must have been like for both men to live in a disputed territory. I had never really thought about how it would be to live in a place where I felt I had to be constantly on guard, worried about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. As a Palestinian, Bassam was subject to curfews and restrictions as to what roads he could travel, and he could be stopped at a checkpoint at any time where he could be subject to strip searches, beatings, and arrest. He had seen family, friends, and neighbors roughly evicted from their homes without warning, their possessions shattered or confiscated. As a teenager, he was arrested as a terrorist for participating in a protest and spent seven years in prison. There, the kindness of one of his guards led him to learn Hebrew so that they could better communicate, and this, in turn, led Bassam to become a student of the Holocaust. Rami’s backgroun was somewhat similar, despite the fact that he is an Israeli Jew. He served his compulsory tour of duty in the Israeli army where he participated in checkpoints, searches, and general warfare during the Occupation. His freedom of movement was also restricted, and, of course, there was the ever-present fear of suicide bombers. But Rami also had men of peace in his family: his father-in-law was an original member of the Knesset but was viewed by many as a traitor because he advocated for a peaceful settlement.
It is McCann’s structure, added to his poetic prose, that gives readers of Apeirogon the impression of living inside the minds, hearts, and bodies of Rami and Bassam. The book is written in 1001 chapters that tell their stories not in a typically lineal narrative form but jumping through time and space and from topic to topic. The chapters move from 1 to 500, chapter 1001 marks the middle point, and then we move from 500 to 1. I’m not entirely sure what McCann intended; perhaps 1001 is the meeting point of the two men, two sides, two religions, although these are interspersed throughout. Some chapters are quite long while others consist of a single sentence or a photograph. Some chapters are somewhat dry summaries of history and politics; others are composed of long lists of items of both small and large consequence. But whether he is describing the care and habits of birds, the eating habits of heads of state, the political history of Israel, meetings of The Parents’ Circle, Smadar’s love of dancing or Abir’s love of math, or any other topic, two themes are never far from the surface: the power of the individual to destroy, and the power of the individual to make things whole again.
This is the kind of book that you need to accept on it’s own terms and to experience rather than simply read. Feel it rather than analyzing it or searching for a single line of meaning. It’s an amazing story, amazingly told.
Why, at the time of confinement and uncertainly, would I read a book about two fathers–one Palestinian, the other Israeli–who lose their young daughters to a terrorist attack? Yes, it is at times a difficult read. Yes, it is at times sad and tragic. But my overall experience was one of inspiration. Many a page brought tears to my eyes as these men share their experience and determine to use their loss — not for hate-filled revenge but for reparation, empathy, and a determination to seek peace for their two warring nations. I came to love and respect these men — real people and not just fictional characters on the page, as they travel the world over to spread their message of forgiveness. If only the politicians would hear their poignant pleas.
Relevant and inspiring.
This breathtaking book is original in its structure and narrative. 1001 pieces of tragedy and memory. history and friendship. An inventive blend of fiction and nonfiction storytelling that is at once heart rending and hopeful. Through this story we experience the grief of two men and the shared grief of a region. It is profound storytelling. A study in humanity. A blueprint for peace. Everyone the same.
Extraordinary! Truly masterful writing. This novel will probably be my favorite book of the entire year.
I am Jewish, have several Arab friends, and have spent a lot of time in Israel so this book captured my attention when I first heard about it. The novel is based on the true story of a friendship between an Israeli father and a Palestinian father; a friendship, between two men who were raised to hate each other, formed from the shared grief of two fathers. Rami Elhanan’s 13-year-old daughter was killed by a suicide bomber; Bassam Aramin’s 10-year-old daughter killed by a rubber bullet.
Apeirogon – a shape with a countably infinite number of sides. This so aptly describes the complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian situation.
McCann presents the heartbreaking story of these two men with sensitivity and compassion and leaves us with a slight glimmer of hope. Written in fragments, instead of chapters, I got the sense of snapshots of the reality of life in Israel – a kaleidoscope of fragments coming together and shifting, morphing from one reality to another, constantly changing, yet remaining the same.
(Note: The movie rights for this book have already been purchased by Steven Spielberg’s company Amblin.)
Heartfelt thanks to Random House for the Advance Reading Copy.
A quite extraordinary novel. Colum McCann has found the form and voice to tell the most complex of stories, with an unexpected friendship between two men at its powerfully beating heart.
Distinguished by empathy and intelligence, this transformative novel marks a new threshold of writing about the conflict. Apeirogon will have a potent effect on all those who read it and, remarkably, could lead to great consequences for the future of this place.
A work of incredible magnitude… McCann finds the emotional accuracy, the sensitivity, and the beauty to tell the heartbreaking reality of life in Israel-Palestine, while allowing readers a glimmer of necessary hope.
Devotees of Colum McCann will find Apeirogon teeming with everything they have come to expect from his work: gorgeous prose; a sweeping look at the paradoxical relationship between history and private life; a penetrating examination of the deficiencies and marvels of the human spirit. This book will break your heart and make you rethink how storytelling works.
This beautiful, deeply felt book is first and foremost an extraordinary act of listening.
Every signicant novel is an act of reckless originality. Apeirogon is nothing like any book you’ve ever read. Think of discovering an entirely unprecedented, and profoundly true, narrative form. Think about feeling that the very idea of the novel, of what it can be and what it’s capable of containing, has been expanded, forever.