Excerpt from Twist by Colum McCann, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

I sublet my flat in Glasnevin, put my furniture in storage, and caught a plane to Cape Town, where the Georges Lecointe was docked. I arrived in the first week of the new year. I had decided to take a few days to acclimate. My only fear was that there would be a cable break and I might miss my chance if the boat was called out to sea, but the publicity team had assured me that they would alert me in the event of any news. I found myself a hotel where I thought I might unwind for a couple of days. Some sardonic copywriter had quoted Oscar Wilde in the hotel's brochure: Those whom the gods love grow young. Such sweet irony. It was the weekend of my forty-eighth birthday.

Excerpted from Twist by Colum McCann. Copyright © 2025 by Colum McCann. Excerpted by permission of Random House. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.