Colum McCann conjures a hugely inventive debut
Observer
McCann writes intense, gripping prose full of sharp and telling details. He can draw a complete psychological portrait from the most minor situations … <i>Songdogs </i>is an exciting book, because it vibrates with the energy of a new writer finding his voice
Times Literary Supplement
A true work of art
Sunday Tribune
Potent, sometimes astonishing, fuelled by a unique descriptive vision – the simplicity and power of the final two pages of <i>Songdogs </i>form one of the most technically and lyrically accomplished conclusions to a novel, debut or otherwise, I have ever read
Sunday Independent
<i>Songdogs</i> is an event in Irish writing
Irish Independent
An arresting new voice from out of Ireland, at once deep and dazzling
- Edna O’Brien,
Powerful ... wistful and gracefully shadowed ... The author has a keen eye and ear; his language is full of sparkling poetry and images
New York Times Book Review
Positively vibrates ... consistently engaging ... remarkably beautiful
Sunday Globe
McCann has unusual control over his material ... McCann’s take on the New World is fresh and often amusing, but what we remember most is the poignancy
Los Angeles Times Book Review
The debut novel from National Book Award winner and Booker nominee Colum McCann
'Colum McCann conjures a hugely inventive debut' Observer
‘McCann writes equally well about Ireland, America and Mexico, and he links past and present in a finely woven narrative: Songdogs is a vivid, beautifully measured book’ Sunday Times
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Colum McCann's first novel goes back to the years before the Spanish Civil War, following the adventures of a peripatetic Irish photographer from the war-strewn shores of Europe to the exotic plains of Mexico.
The story is told in the words of the photographer's only son, a wanderer himself, who uses his father's unreliable memories and the fading remnants of his art to piece together his family history and explain the mystery surrounding his mother - a Mexican beauty brought back by his father to Ireland.