Colum Mccann's Reading List

The author of “TransAtlantic” and “Let the Great World Spin” says choosing a favorite living novelist is like walking the plank: “Inevitably you end up drowning, but at least it’s in a sea of heroes.”

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By the Book: Colum Mccann (2014)

NYT By the Book column (2014-06-19).

Source: www.nytimes.com

Five Days at Memorial

Sheri Fink · Buy on Amazon

"a brilliantly researched dissection of what went on at Memorial hospital in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. It reads like a Saramago novel."

Stoner

John Williams · 1965 · Buy on Amazon

"I have two old reliables that I go back to again and again — 'Stoner,' by John Williams, and 'The Meadow,' by James Galvin."

The Meadow

James Galvin · Buy on Amazon

"I have two old reliables that I go back to again and again... 'The Meadow,' by James Galvin. 'The Meadow' defies classification — it's a memoir, a scrapbook, a novel and a poem rolled into one."

The Book of My Lives

Aleksandar Hemon · Buy on Amazon

"I wept openly when I read Aleksandar Hemon's 'The Book of My Lives,' and in particular his essay about losing his child, Isabel. That tore me up, but somehow healed me also. He makes his daughter reappear."

Fup

Jim Dodge · Buy on Amazon

"The one book that consistently made us laugh is a fable by Jim Dodge called 'Fup.' A little miracle of a book, for all ages, about a duck and a secret recipe for whiskey."

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