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    TransAtlantic: A Novel
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    TransAtlantic: A Novel
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    TransAtlantic: A Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    TransAtlantic: A Novel

    Written by Colum McCann

    Narrated by Geraldine Hughes

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY KIRKUS REVIEWS

    In the National Book Award-winning Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann thrilled readers with a marvelous high-wire act of fiction that The New York Times Book Review called "an emotional tour de force." Now McCann demonstrates once again why he is one of the most acclaimed and essential authors of his generation with a soaring novel that spans continents, leaps centuries, and unites a cast of deftly rendered characters, both real and imagined.

    Newfoundland, 1919. Two aviators-Jack Alcock and Arthur Brown-set course for Ireland as they attempt the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, placing their trust in a modified bomber to heal the wounds of the Great War.

    Dublin, 1845 and '46. On an international lecture tour in support of his subversive autobiography, Frederick Douglass finds the Irish people sympathetic to the abolitionist cause-despite the fact that, as famine ravages the countryside, the poor suffer from hardships that are astonishing even to an American slave.

    New York, 1998. Leaving behind a young wife and newborn child, Senator George Mitchell departs for Belfast, where it has fallen to him, the son of an Irish-American father and a Lebanese mother, to shepherd Northern Ireland's notoriously bitter and volatile peace talks to an uncertain conclusion.

    These three iconic crossings are connected by a series of remarkable women whose personal stories are caught up in the swells of history. Beginning with Irish housemaid Lily Duggan, who crosses paths with Frederick Douglass, the novel follows her daughter and granddaughter, Emily and Lottie, and culminates in the present-day story of Hannah Carson, in whom all the hopes and failures of previous generations live on. From the loughs of Ireland to the flatlands of Missouri and the windswept coast of Newfoundland, their journeys mirror the progress and shape of history. They each learn that even the most unassuming moments of grace have a way of rippling through time, space, and memory.

    The most mature work yet from an incomparable storyteller, TransAtlantic is a profound meditation on identity and history in a wide world that grows somehow smaller and more wondrous with each passing year.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJun 4, 2013
    ISBN9780307878014
    Unavailable
    TransAtlantic: A Novel
    Author

    Colum McCann

    Colum McCann is the author of seven novels, three collections of stories and two works of non-fiction. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, he has been the recipient of many international honours, including the U.S National Book Award, the International Dublin Literary Prize, a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres from the French government, election to the Irish arts academy, several European awards, the 2010 Best Foreign Novel Award in China, and an Oscar nomination. In 2017 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts. His work has been published in over 40 languages. He is the President and co-founder of the non-profit global story exchange organisation, Narrative 4. He is the Thomas Hunter Writer in Residence in Hunter College, in New York, where he lives with his wife Allison and their family. His most recent novel, Apeirogon, became an immediate New York Times bestseller and won several major international awards. His first major non-fiction book, American Mother, will be published in February 2024. www.colummccann.com

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    Reviews for TransAtlantic

    4/5

    618 ratings130 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This is the first book I have read by this author. He came to speak at our Author, Author night in our town, so I wanted to read something by him before the event. It was a good story and since I have been to Northern Ireland and I am Irish American, I could relate to the stories he told. He was an engaging speaker and we all had a good time with him answering questions and telling even more stories. I will read his other books as soon as I can.
    • 4/5
      Transatlantic This is a wonderful story with Ireland as the centrepiece of a narrative that crosses several generations. It starts in 1919 with the transatlantic flight of Alcock and Brown and their landing in Ireland. This is followed by the lectures given by Frederick Douglass in 1845-1846 in Dublin and elsewhere to promote the abolition of slavery worldwide. In 1998, American Senator George Mitchell is the lead negotiator in the talks that end the troubles in Northern Ireland culminating in the Good Friday accord.So, this sets the stage for the other characters who although minor in the grand scheme are impacted and affected by the three famous people in interesting ways that we follow for the rest of the story. Lily Duggan, Emily Ehrlich, their children, grandchildren and an undelivered letter provide a fascinating tell in America, Newfoundland and Ireland.The characters are really well developed against the historic background, wonderful descriptions of weather, internal monologues, tragedy, sadness, grief and joy.
    • 4/5
      I love the way McCann writes, even though I don't always love what he is writing about. In this novel we have intertwined stories all related in some way to Ireland and a young woman named Lily Duggan and her descendants. The story jumps back and forth in time, which, for me, sometimes worked really well, and sometimes seemed forced. Some characters are real and their stories are based on either historical documents or interviews. Others are fictional. Oddly the fictional characters felt less fully developed and interesting to me. That does not seem to make sense as the author should have been able to more fully flesh out his own invented characters, and yet, those are the characters that felt the least interesting to me. I found the descriptions of the scenes of the famine horrific and so well done, same for the mentions of slavery - brief, yet brutal and haunting. On the other hand the scenes in Ireland that take place near the end of the novel I found endless and not particularly interesting, although they did wrap thing up.
    • 4/5
      A series of interlocked stories that connect generations, peoples, struggles, and achievements. Some landscapes and characters are so vividly imagined and well-described they stand apart from the rest of the book, bring the reader along a route of flats and peaks to occasional "scenic vista" moments. There is an uneasy tension between the authentic yet fictionally archetypal female characters' experience of the world and each other.
    • 4/5
      Short stories all in a sudden become a book. Very smart.
    • 5/5
      I will readily confess that the choppy writing style put me off when I began the book. I briefly entertained thoughts of just putting it aside and moving on, but the bit of story intrigued me. I'm glad I continued. The story is a bunch of little pieces, some of which interested me more than others, but which overall are very well done and greatly captured my interest. Initially I was caught up in the first story of the first tranatlantic crossing by air in 1919 of Alcock and Brown from Newfoundland to Ireland. And then the story jumps back in time quite a few years. It goes back, to Frederick Douglass and an extended trip to Ireland in 1845-46. This "middle section" of the first part of the book is extraordinary and we witness his growth and transformation as well as his arrival at the time of the beginning of the great famine of Ireland in 1845. Then begins the third part of the book dealing with US Senator George Mitchell and it filled me in on a man and the peace accords in our times (20 years past now), but just a little. And, for whatever reason, just not as inspiring. It did seem a bit overlong and drawn out compared to the rest of the book, but that part of the story which would seem to have a lot to work with just didn't impress. Once the Mitchell part began we could see the start of the thread that would bind this together. The book continues from the three initial pieces and delivered a well done story although some parts were more than a little painful to read. Overall I really liked this.This isn't a conventional novel. Recommended.
    • 4/5
      This book is McCann's imagining of what happened during Frederick Douglass's exile in Ireland--his thoughts, the thoughts of the maid in the house where he stayed, the thoughts of his supporters and various polititians, along with a parallel story of a family in the midst of the troubles, in a cottage in Ireland. McCann is such a lyrical writer. It's interesting, however, that I remember the Frederick Douglas parts much more clearly than the contemporary Ireland parts. Shameful, perhaps, to admit.
    • 3/5
      TransAtlantic started with a very intriguing plot and characters, then moved away from the author's beautiful words until the Senator surfaced,and left readers with an ending that seemed like it would never end and a lot of unpleasant images.
    • 3/5
      The writing was powerful and beautiful, and I liked the slow revelation of how the apparently disparate threads and lives are linked. However - I found the brutality and violence too distressing, and was also irritated by too many descriptive scenes that didn't go anywhere (some are OK, just too many for my taste). Eventually, I just wanted to get through the book so I can put it away. The letter was also an interesting idea, but not convinced that it worked. All in all, I think an interesting and powerful book, but just not for me.
    • 4/5
      It took a while to begin to see the connections between the characters, but overall, quite enjoyable.
    • 5/5
      Colum McCann shows once again that historical fiction need not be overlong and melodramatic. A epic novel doesn't have to be epic in size. At first TransAtlantic seems to be more of a short story collection with stories on the Alcock and Brown transatlantic flight, Frederick Douglass's visit to Ireland during the famine and George Mitchell and the Ireland peace process. In these stories briefly are three women that only have a moment or two with the real life men. The second half of the novel deals with These women, four generations of women starting with Lily Duggan, a Irish immigrant, her daughter, granddaughter and great granddaughter. As to be expected for McCann, the prose is wonderful. He puts you there in Ireland during the famine, in a plane (a plane that the war is knocked out of) over the Atlantic, in America during the Civil War. It was great to read these women's stories, their lives passing through history, the hardships of Lily's life and a tragic death later on. I heartedly recommend this novel, spanning 150 years across two continents but only takes one or two sittings to read.
    • 5/5
      well written with magnificent audio version
    • 3/5
      Colum McCann tells weaves stories of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Immigration, the abolition movement, and women's rights in the threaded stories that make up this book. I found the first half of this book heavy lifting. The individual stories were interesting, but I kept wondering what the book was really about. Things clicked in the second half of the book, but I cannot say that my reading experience was enjoyable or overly enlightening.
    • 2/5
      With Transatlantic Colum McCann foremostly proves himself as a writer of novellas, but as a novel Transatlantic is too aenemic. Contemporary literary criticism recognizes the fact that the concept of "the novel" and "the novella" are constructs which do not have absolute, or even very clear demarcations. Particularly post-modern writers tend to seek the frontiers of the genre, and mix or b(l)end genre. Besides, the designation "novel" or "novella" seems to be a strategic decision of the publisher, as in the eye of the reader, i.e. the consumer, a novel has more prestige than a novella. However, it would have been more true to present Transatlantic as a collection of four novellas.Regarding Transatlantic as a collection of novellas would solve the problem of the loose structure of the novel. While all parts of the book are related because they have a link connecting the United States and Ireland across the Atlantic, the link is too weak to suggest that Transatlantic is a novel, and in calling the book a novel, the reader feels strained to look for an over-arching story and coherent pattern of meaning, where there is none.Colum McCann writes well, but the four parts of the book are little engaging, and therefore the "novel" as a whole is unsatisfactory. The story of Frederick Douglass visiting Ireland in the 1840s is the most interesting and engaging, but even each part of the novel lacks depth to stand on its own. Transatlantic is clearly a pile of undigested material. Reading it is frustrating and a waste of time.
    • 4/5
      Great audio of this interwoven story---so much detail, especially of George Mitchell---it made me wonder what he would think of himself in this book. I wished there was just a little bit more at the end.
    • 4/5
      The "TransAtlantic" of the title is the connecting link between each of the vignettes tracing the generations of one matriarchal line set against historical backdrops and characters. The story actually begins in the middle, then drops back picking up the characters at important points along the way, but not in chronological order.By the end of the book it became clear why the author chose to structure the story in this way, though on the downside, I never truly connected with any of the characters because of the way in which it was structured. Also, a death which might have had much more emotional content didn't because his death had already been revealed in an earlier bit.This novel has received outstanding reviews. It was well written, poignant. But the structure did prevent me from feeling a real sense of connection to the story and characters.
    • 3/5
      Colum McCann has a knack for portraying the inner thoughts and workings of historical figures. Sentence fragments. Noun blocks. This tendency of writers nowadays (David Peace, David Mitchell, McCann in this book) to write in short descriptive bursts is getting to be a little grating. Mitchell is obviously an influence here too. It's an interesting read but I'd recommend This Side of Brightness and Let The Great World Spin ahead of it.
    • 4/5
      It took a long time to work out the somewhat tenuous connection between the different time frames and historical events in this book. McCann is a lyrical writer, his words are evocative, his characters are fully rounded, but I found myself impatient to get to the end of the book from about half-way through. It just didn't hold my interest.
    • 5/5
      Colum McCann is a master story teller. This is a must read. He has interwoven a nonfiction character with fictional characters told over several generations.
    • 5/5
      A great novel. Perhaps not as great as Let the Great World Spin', but what is?
    • 5/5
      What to say that hasn't already been said? There is so much going on in this book from both a technical and creative standpoint. I loved how McCann chose to structure the book, and I loved his writing and the story he was telling. It may be broken into several distinct parts, but it is one story essentially. And I think you could ask ten different people who have read the book what that story was and you would get ten different answers. Some might find that infuriating, but I find it fascinating and think it speaks volumes about McCann's talent. This was my first book by him, and I am eager to get to the others on my shelf.But back to the story. What was the story I read? Essentially, it was about the small moments in life that don't get noticed or recorded or written about but which have an impact, though perhaps unseen for many years. It was about history writ small. McCann gives us three "big" moments in the tangled relationship between Ireland and America and then shows us what those things actually meant beyond the novelty or news headlines. I really enjoyed untangling the threads and making connections; at one point I found myself scrawling down names and stories and arrows to keep it straight and to make sense of it all. It's a complex and fascinating book that rewards a patient and careful reader. I may bump my rating up to 5 stars given the way I am still thinking about it several days after finishing.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. The way McCann weaves the stories, characters, and time periods is graceful and masterful. And he writes like a freakin' dream!
    • 2/5
      I'm torn about how to rate this one. There were parts I was really interested in and others that I didn't care as much about. Additionally, I felt like the first and second part didn't tie together as well as they should have. I felt like all the stories from part one were unfinished and incomplete, and I would have liked to follow them further. I felt almost like I was starting a completely different book when I started the second part, but at least the third part related directly to the second. On one level, I can say it's well-written but on another, I wasn't overly impressed. This was my first try with McCann and it hasn't done much to convince me for a second.I won a copy of this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.
    • 5/5
      I received Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program, and was absolutely floored by it -- a tremendous read. I went on to track down his whole back catalog, and he is an excellent writer, but nothing touched me in the same way, though the devastating This Side of Brightness is worth mentioning.When I received Transatlantic from Early Reviewers, I was a little anxious -- would it live up to Let the Great World Spin? I started it twice, and didn't get more than a few pages into it, but third time was the charm and I read it with delight. This time the story spans the ocean, from Ireland to Canada and the U.S., and back again. The first half of the book is all men, and all historical figures: Frederick Douglass goes to Ireland to spread the anti-Slavery message and is overwhelmed by the condition of the Irish poor; two WWI fliers make a transatlantic run; New York Senator George Mitchell helps to broker a peace in Northern Ireland. The text is well-imagined, doing a lot with a spare narrative.The second half of the book focuses on members of a family of women who've been recurring characters in the first half: Lily, a servant who flees Ireland to find a better life in America; her daughter Emily, a writer who lives in a world of books and through her beloved illegitimate daughter, Lottie; Lottie, an avid photographer and tennis player who returns to Ireland to marry a young officer she meets when the women travel to England to interview one of the transatlantic pilots; Hannah, who finds herself in old age at the end of the line. Of course this puts the men on the public stage while the women inhabit the realm of the personal, but their lives are portrayed as being just as complex and compelling as those of the real people depicted in the first half.McCann's characters are memorable, the interweaving storylines all end up making sense together, and as with many of his works, a very real set of lives, complete with their tragedies, end up on a note of tentative hope.
    • 4/5
      Mr McCann is a very good writer. He's has a distinct style and an interesting way with words. It took me a while to know where this book was going but the writing kept me interested. A sad story, I read it when I was sick with a cold so it fit my mood perfectly.
    • 2/5
      Non fiction tale of multiple stories and multiple countries. I wasn't terribly pleased with it - too disjointed
    • 3/5
      Enjoyed this book which "stars" a variety of people and places. While it's not the best McCann I've read, this author is still on my "If you see a new one read it" list.
    • 5/5
      [TransAtlantic] by [Colm McCann] is written in 3 sections. Each revolves around the Irish and/or American experience in some way. There are historical characters and fictional characters that run through the maternal line of a family through 5 generations. The historical characters include Frederick Douglas on an 1845 visit to Ireland, Alcock and Brown's transatlantic flight from Canada to Ireland in 1919, and former Senator George Mitchell and his attempt to mediate peace in Northern Ireland in 1998. The family story, which connects to the historical characters, begins with a housemaid in the home where Douglas stays during his visit. Inspired by him, she takes passage to America hoping for a better life. History is told from her to the current time by the lives of each succeeding generation.
    • 4/5
      McCann is an amazing storyteller. As I read, there were many places where his language and understated connections among characters, eras and stories just took my breath away.
    • 2/5
      Just didn't like it.