Twist

A Novel

By: Colum McCann

Narrated by: Colum McCann

An “urgent [and] ingenious” (The New York Times Book Review) novel of rupture and repair in the digital age, delving into a hidden world deep under the ocean—from the New York Times bestselling author of Apeirogon and Let the Great World Spin

“The spirit of Joseph Conrad hovers over the text, but here the heart of darkness lies at the bottom of the ocean.”—Salman Rushdie

“Everything gets fixed, and we all stay broken.”

Anthony Fennell, an Irish journalist and playwright, is assigned to cover the underwater cables that carry the world’s information. The sum of human existence—words, images, transactions, memes, voices, viruses—travels through the tiny fiber-optic tubes. But sometimes the tubes break, at an unfathomable depth.

Fennell’s journey brings him to the west coast of Africa, where he uncovers a story about the raw human labor behind the dazzling veneer of the technological world. He meets a fellow Irishman, John Conway, the chief of mission on a cable repair ship. The mysterious Conway is a skilled engineer and a freediver capable of reaching extraordinary depths. He is also in love with a South African actress, Zanele, who must leave to go on her own literary adventure to London.

When the ship is sent up the coast to repair a series of major underwater breaks, both men learn that the very cables they seek to fix carry the news that may cause their lives to unravel. At sea, they are forced to confront the most elemental questions of life, love, absence, belonging, and the perils of our severed connections. Can we, in our fractured world, reweave ourselves out of the thin, broken threads of our pasts? Can the ruptured things awaken us from our despair?

Resoundingly simple and turbulent at the same time, Twist is a meditation on the nature of narrative and truth from one of the great storytellers of our times.

©2025 Colum McCann (P)2025 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Enigmatic and urgent . . . ingenious . . . McCann, author of the National Book Award-winning Let the Great World Spin, clearly knows what he’s up to.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Told with McCann’s incomparable prose, Twist opens a window into an obscure way people on earth are connected, told by a man who is himself fairly broken. . . . Gorgeously written and sad and inspiring.”—The Boston Globe

“Genuinely haunting and sometimes thrilling . . . There are also plenty of genuinely gorgeous passages about the way people are translated into dots of light in our information-based economy. As usual, McCann is sensitive to the fluid nature of oppression across history and countries.”—The Washington Post

Depth of insight, humility, understanding, and profound wisdom textured into a timely tale

Brilliantly written, engaging, sooo bing worthy and deeply relevant. Great author! Wonderful style. Time to read the rest of his work. I was always fascinated by “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad. With “Twist”, McCann elevated that genre’ to a new dimension. Thank you, Colum McCann, for transporting me to a new level.

So happy he’s still writing fiction

I laughed out loud when he inserted himself at the end. I met Colum at a reading in Idaho years ago and he was wearing that purple skinny linen scarf.

Brilliant writing, great story

Poetic writing. Compelling story and pacing. Reminds one of Conrad. Perfect narrator - his soft Irish lilt brings the story to life.

You would think Conway would be the main character but the narrator ended up to be it.

Rambled on Disconnected stories. Left me uninterested and not wanting to finish listening to to the book