Apeirogon (novel)
Apeirogon is a novel by Colum McCann, published in February 2020.
Author | Colum McCann |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre | Novel |
Publisher | Random House (US) |
Publication date | 25 February 2020 |
Media type | Print (hardback) |
Pages | 480 |
ISBN | 9781400069606 |
Preceded by | TransAtlantic |
The novel explores the conflict in the Middle East. It follows the story of two men who each lost a daughter. One is Palestinian, the other Israeli.
Plot
The story follows two real life figures: Rami Elhanan, an Israeli graphic designer, and Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian scholar and previous political prisoner. Consisting of 1001 short sections, the two central figures bond over the untimely deaths of their respective daughters.
Reviews
Reviews for the book have been generally positive. Charles Finch in The Washington Post described the book as "a loving, thoughtful, grueling novel.[1] Shoiab Alam, writing in The Daily Star, hailed the novel as "a masterful and timely literary response to [the] region's neverending horrors."[2] However, the international best-selling Palestinian writer Susan Abulhawa calls it "Another colonialist misstep in commercial publishing" that "mystifies the colonisation of Palestine as a ‘complicated conflict’ between two equal sides".[3]
Awards
Year | Award | Category | Result | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|
2020 | Booker Prize | — | Longlisted | [4][5] |
Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger | Novel | Won | [6] | |
Prix Médicis | étranger | Shortlisted | [7] | |
2021 | Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence | Fiction | Longlisted | [8] |
Dalkey Literary Awards | — | Shortlisted | [9] |
References
- Finch, Charles (10 March 2020). "TColum McCann's 'Apeirogon' takes an elliptical approach to the unending Middle East conflict". Retrieved 26 August 2020.
- Alam, Shoiab (May 20, 2021). "Fatherhood, loss, and healing in Colum McCann's 'Apeirogon'". The Daily Star. Archived from the original on 2021-05-29. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
- Abulhawa, Susan. "Apeirogon: Another colonialist misstep in commercial publishing". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2022-02-18.
- Doyle, Martin. "Booker Prize 2020: Colum McCann on longlist heavy with debuts and US authors". The Irish Times.
- "Apeirogon | The Booker Prizes". thebookerprizes.com. 25 February 2020.
- Chevilley, Philippe; Lesniak, Isabelle (4 December 2020). "Prix littéraires étrangers : le palmarès des Echos". Les Echos (in French). Retrieved 7 July 2022.
- "Prix Médicis : Éric Reinhardt, Camille de Toledo et Hervé Le Tellier dans la deuxième sélection, Emmanuel Carrère n'y figure plus". France Info (in French). 3 October 2020. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
- "2021 Winners". Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence. 18 October 2020. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
- "Novel Of the Year Award Shortlist 2021". Zurich Ireland. 19 April 2021. Retrieved 5 May 2021.