{
    "id": 292377,
    "slug": "thirteen-ways-of-looking-2",
    "nstc": null,
    "title": "Thirteen ways of looking",
    "subtitle": null,
    "collection_title": null,
    "collection_part_number": null,
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    "description": "<b><b>NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY<i> CHICAGO TRIBUNE </i>AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY <i>The New York Times Book Review &bull; </i>NPR &bull; <i>Los Angeles Times &bull;&#160;The Boston Globe &bull;&#160;The Seattle Times &bull; The Independent</i></b><br></b><br>In such acclaimed novels as <i>Let the Great World Spin</i> and <i>TransAtlantic, </i>National Book Award&ndash;winning author Colum McCann has transfixed readers with his precision, tenderness, and authority. Now, in his first collection of short fiction in more than a decade, McCann charts the territory of chance, and the profound and intimate consequences of even our smallest moments.<br><br> <b><i>&ldquo;As it was, it was like being set down in the best of poems, carried into a cold landscape, blindfolded, turned around, unblindfolded, forced, then, to invent new ways of seeing.&rdquo;</i></b><br><br> In the exuberant title novella, a retired judge reflects on his life&rsquo;s work, unaware as he goes about his daily routines that this particular morning will be his last. In &ldquo;Sh&rsquo;khol,&rdquo; a mother spending Christmas alone with her son confronts the unthinkable when he disappears while swimming off the coast near their home in Ireland. In &ldquo;Treaty,&rdquo; an elderly nun catches a snippet of a news report in which it is revealed that the man who once kidnapped and brutalized her is alive, masquerading as an agent of peace. And in &ldquo;What Time Is It Now, Where You Are?&rdquo; a writer constructs a story about a Marine in Afghanistan calling home on New Year&rsquo;s Eve.<br><br> Deeply personal, subtly subversive, at times harrowing, and indeed funny, yet also full of comfort, <i>Thirteen Ways of Looking</i> is a striking achievement. With unsurpassed empathy for his characters and their inner lives, Colum McCann forges from their stories a profound tribute to our search for meaning and grace. The collection is a rumination on the power of storytelling in a world where language and memory can sometimes falter, but in the end do not fail us, and a contemplation of the healing power of literature.<br><br><b>Praise for <i>Thirteen Ways of Looking</i></b><br><br>&ldquo;Extraordinary . . . incandescent.&rdquo;<b>&mdash;<i>Chicago Tribune</i></b><br><br> &ldquo;The irreducible mystery of human experience ties this small collection together, and in each of these stories McCann explores that theme in some strikingly effective ways. . . . [The first story] is as fascinating as it is poignant. . . . [The second] captures the mundane and mysterious aspects of shaping characters from the gray clay of words, placing them in realistic settings and breathing life into their lungs. . . . That he makes the story so emotionally compelling is a sign of his genius. . . . The most remarkable [piece] is <i>Sh&rsquo;khol</i>. . . . Caught in the rushing currents of this drama, you know you&rsquo;re reading a little masterpiece.&rdquo;<b>&mdash;<i>The Washington Post</i></b><br><br> &ldquo;McCann is a writer of power and subtlety and beauty. . . . The powerful title story loiters in the mind long after you&rsquo;ve read it.&rdquo;<b>&mdash;Sarah Lyall, <i>The New York Times</i></b><br><br> &ldquo;[McCann] unspools complex and unforgettable stories in this, his first collection in more than a decade.&rdquo;<b>&mdash;<i>The Boston Globe</i></b><br><br> &ldquo;McCann is a passionate writer whose impulse is always toward a generous understanding of his diverse characters.&rdquo;<b>&mdash;<i>The Wall Street Journal</i></b><br><br> &ldquo;Powerful, profound, and deeply empathetic, McCann&rsquo;s beautifully wrought writing in <i>Thirteen Ways of Looking</i> glides off the page.&rdquo;<b>&mdash;<i>BuzzFeed</i></b><br><br> &ldquo;McCann weaves the magic that made <i>Let the Great World Spin</i> so acclaimed.&rdquo;<b>&mdash;<i>The Huffington Post</i></b>",
    "imprint": null,
    "language_code": "eng",
    "original_language_code": null,
    "page_count": 272,
    "duration_seconds": null,
    "publication_date_first": "2016-09-20",
    "publication_date_latest": "2016-09-20",
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            "isbn": "9780812986587",
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    "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:10:49+00:00",
    "updated_at": "2025-11-02T00:22:39+00:00",
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        "slug": "random-house-us",
        "name": "Random House US",
        "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:07:56+00:00",
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