Colum McCann In Conversation

With Paula Shields

Colum McCann is the author of seven novels and three collections of short stories which have been published in over forty languages and received some of the world's most prestigious literary awards and honours, including the National Book Award for his novel Let the Great World Spin in 2013. His novel TransAtlantic was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2013, and his most recent novel, Apeirogon, also longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and is an international bestseller on four continents.

He is the President and co-founder of the non-profit global story exchange organisation, Narrative 4, which uses personal storytelling to build empathy between young people so they can improve their communities and the world together. Colum’s new book – American Mother – channels the voice of Diane Foley, whose son Jim, an American freelance journalist, was killed by Isis in 2014.She recalls the months of his captivity, the efforts made to bring him home and the days following his death, in which Diane came face to face with one of the men responsible for her son's kidnapping and torture. 

Join Colum as he chats about this new book, his writing career, his charity work and his belief in the ‘democracy of storytelling’. 

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