I apologize to the people who loved and raved about this book! It is a first read for me by this author.Many parts I was very taken with the writing, but the format, and the seemingly random streams of thought..I know they all connected in ways, but damn my head hurts.I appreciated the story and the sadness of the loss these two men endured, tragically losing both their daughters.. and I also love reading about this part of the world, I just wish it had been in a regular novel type format. A ver...

On the Booker Prize Longlist!An eye opening epic blend of fact and fiction from Colum McCann, ambitiously structured with its echoes and inspirations of 1001 nights and by the Apeirogon, a shape with a countably infinite number of sides. The non-linear narrative interweaves the tragedies that befall two fathers on different sides of the Israeli-Palestine conflict, and the endless cycle of the horrors and terrors of history repeating itself. Rami Elhanan, an Israeli, lost his daughter, 13 year ol...

BOOKER PRIZE 2020 LONGLISTED We have words but sometimes they’re not enough. Apeirogon: a shape with a countably infinite number of sides. A book of one thousand and one parts. A story of Israel and Palestine. Of Rami, father of Smadar, killed in a bombing aged 13. Of Bassam, father of Abir, shot dead by an Israeli soldier at the age of 10. A true story.The hero makes a friend of his enemy. That’s my duty. Don’t thank me for doing it.McCann constructs Apeirogon both directly and obliquely, in

"They seemed the most unlikely of friends, even beyond the obvious, one being Israeli, the other Palestinian." Rami and Bassam's story is humbling. Centered around the Israeli-Palestine conflict, Rami and Bassam relive the day that each of their daughters died at the hands of a oppressive barrier that has effected more than just a perimeter. After each lose a daughter to violence, they learn to find solace in their grief and overcome the boundaries defined by their government. "...everyone

According to the philosopher Martin Buber there are two kinds of relationships— I-It and I-Thou. I-It relationships are those where we miss the essential humanity of the other person. We assess them. We label them. I-Thou relationships, by contrast, are infused with empathy, devoid of judgment, qualification or objectification. I meet you as you are, you meet me as I am. We leave our baggage at the door. The possibilities emerging from the latter — a relationship unmediated by an intervening sys...

First 5 star read of 2020!Perhaps not perfect, but certainly brilliant, thought provoking, emotionally charged and timely. Apeirogon is not a linear narrative. Told in 1000 short segments, it tells the story of two men who have lost daughters to violence — one is Israeli and the other is Palestinian. This is based on a true story. Rami and Bassam are joined together in their grief and through the united project of finding a road to peace. The fragments of McCann’s brilliant narrative go back and...

DNF at 40%. I tried, I tried more than once, starting over each time. Maybe it is that right now my mind is so scattered that the scattered presentation if this book, made it frustrating. I usually love this author and I understand what he was trying to do with this book, but I finally have thrown in the towel. The repetition, the back and forth narrative, did me in.

What could cause someone to be that angry, that mad, that desperate, that hopeless, that stupid, that pathetic, that he is willing to blow himself up alongside a girl, not even fourteen years old? How can you possibly understand that instinct? To tear his own body apart? To walk down a busy street and pull the cord on a belt that rips him asunder? How can he think that way? What made him? Where in the world was he created? How did he get that way? Where did he come from? Who taught him this?

"Borges said that his despair as a writer came when he was unable to translate the limitless nature of the aleph: that point in space which contained all other points. While some fell back on birds and spheres and angels, he himself was unable to find the metaphor for this timeless repository of everything. Language was successive: it could not, by its nature, be frozen in one place and therefore couldn’t catch the sheer simultaneity of all things.Nevertheless, said Borges, he would recollect wh...

Now shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction Re-read following its deserved (and predicted below) Booker longlisting.I loved this book as much on a second read as a first - its omission from the Booker shortlist was simply to the detriment of the prize. Once upon a time …. Rami Elhanan, a Jew, a graphic artist … father too of the late Smadar, travelled on his motorbike from the suburbs of Jerusalem to the Cremesian monastry in the mainly Christian town of Beit Jala, near Bethlehe...

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 BOOKER PRIZEThe last sentence of the fist chapter says it all. “Geography here is everything”. Geography here in this part of the world can get you killed. If you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, if you are in a zone where restrictions say you cannot go. Even by accident, yes, geography can get you killed.There are signs everywhere to help prevent this happening. Signs that are expected in some way to reduce the killings. Surely, it’s as simple as sticking to you...

He had discovered that the secret to the structure was that the thousands of parts were not hung on a framework at all, but were harmoniously integrated.This was my second time through Apeirogon and a re-read has only increased my appreciation for the book. It is a mystery to me how this did not make its way onto the Booker shortlist (that could be said about a number of books, but particularly this one from my perspective).In my first reading, I pictured the book as a huge number of dots on a p...

Everything about this book is extraordinary. I was not surprised since Colum McCann is one of my favorite writers. I’ve read all of his published books. This book though, is different from anything I’ve read by him. McCann’s words best describe it : “This is a hybrid novel with invention at its core, a work of storytelling which, like all storytelling, weaves together elements of speculation, memory, fact, and imagination....” The heart of the book is the real story of Rami Elhanan, an Israeli w...

Not sure yet how to frame my thoughts - but I honestly almost stopped reading completely at 13%!Until then - I was reading this book diligently- closely - learning and FASCINATED about the migration of birds.But then... that 13% period came. I actually felt PHYSICALLY SICK with bile in my throat. I thought I ‘was’ going to vomit. - my body reacted THAT much....Not sure how to rate it - 5 stars in parts 3 stars in other parts ...I’m left thinking there ARE some books best NOT read - books DEFINIT...

Grief is grief. It cannot be measured or weighted, or argued. Two fathers, two daughters killed by the opposite side, two families shattered, and still the same grief. 'Apeirogon' was a demanding novel for me due to several reasons, the first one being that I had a general understanding of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Do I know more now? Yes, and not only about the decades of fight, but about life in that region and its history. Mr McCann provides in his unusual narration both the

Apeirogon: a shape with a countably Infinite Number of sides.Divide two deaths you get life This is a dense and heavy hearted story - based on truths some Imagination and historical history of 2 men who have found each other and a lifetime friendship despite one being Israeli and one being Palestinian. They have been brought together because of the common bond they share: the death of a child.This is an enlightening piece of living in a place that is occupied; and one that occupies it. Of guns.

Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2020Another book that would have made the shortlist in a saner world.I will start with a disclosure - the edition I read was an uncorrected proof courtesy of my friends at Five Leaves bookshop. Gumble's Yard and Neil have already written excellent detailed reviews so I will try to keep this one short. This is a book that fully deserves the hype - McCann has dared to write this collage of fact and fiction that challenges all sides in the conflict in Palestine to ex...

I personally do not like this book, so I am giving it one star. This is upsetting to me. In the past I have always relied on good books from Colum McCann.The story circles around two men, two fathers, Bassam Aramin (a Muslim Arab) and Rami Elhanan (a seventh generation Israeli Jew). Each has lost a daughter to the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Bassam lost his ten-year-old Abir to a rubber bullet fired by an Israeli soldier shooting from the back of a jeep. Rami lost his thirteen-year-old Smadar

4.5 Stars Apeirogon — a shape with a countably infinite number of sides — shares the stories of those living through the conflict between Palestine and Israel, through two families whose outlooks and lives were changed when the lives of their two daughters were taken on what began as ordinary days, and ended with two families grieving their loss. The journey that brought them together through their grieving was not an immediate one, or an easy one, but a worthwhile one in the end. Through shar...

“I love the fact that our stories can cross all sorts of borders and boundaries.” – Colum McCannSet in Jerusalem and surrounding area, each of two fathers, a Palestinian and an Israeli, has lost a daughter to radical violence. United in loss, they become friends and join Combatants for Peace, “a bi-national, volunteer based, movement working throughout Palestine and Israel to promote peace.” Their friendship is grounded in fact. This book provides insight into how their daily lives are impacted