The John Adams Institute welcomed Irish author, Colum McCann, who spoke about his daring and atmospheric novel, This Side of Brightness. The book spans seventy years from the days when men dug beneath the East River to build the subways of New York to a time when those very tunnels became home to the city’s lost and homeless. Throughout the novel, McCann shifts between the world in the tunnels and the world outside, allowing us a glimpse of New York’s social history. There is more than descriptive strength in his writing, his prose style carefully constructed. McCann’s other novels include Let the Great World Spin, Dancer and Translatlantic. Born in Dublin in 1965, McCann has clearly developed a love affair with his new home town, New York, and is among the many Irish writers of his generation who have spent most of their adult lives abroad.
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Links:
Colum McCann’s website
