About

Mr B's is thrilled to welcome award-winning novelist Colum McCann to chat to them about his hugely anticipated new novel, Twist.

Named a 2025 book to look out for by the Observer, Financial Times, Irish Times and New European, Twist is a darkly epic novel, as taut and propulsive as a thriller, and a timeless exploration of narrative and truth. It is simply the work of a master storyteller at the height of his powers.

Colum McCann is the author of seven novels including the Booker Longlisted Let the Great World Spin, voted as one of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, as well as Mr B's team fave Apeirogon, also longlisted for the Booker Prize and winner of several major awards. His first major non-fiction book, American Mother, was also published in 2024.

Colum will be in conversation with award-winning writer, editor and broadcaster, Xan Brooks, whose most recent novel The Catchers was published in 2024.

About the book:

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, and finds his place among the band of drifters who make up the crew. But as the mission falters, tensions simmer – and Conway is thrown into crisis. A terrible, violent tragedy is unfolding in the life he has left behind on land; and, trapped out at sea, it seems as if the vast expanse of the ocean is closing in.

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.

'Urgent and utterly compelling' KEVIN BARRY

'One of our greatest storytellers' ELIF SHAFAK

'A powerfully realist novel of men at sea . It speaks of the brokenness of our time, the successful and unsuccessful attempts at repairs, and the vulnerability of our world' SALMAN RUSHDIE

'McCann writes with an amazing abundance of humanity' ELIZABETH STROUT