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This Side of Brightness by Colum McCann
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This Side of Brightness

A Novel

$20.00

Get for $14.99 with membership
Narrator Dion Graham
Length 8 hours 41 minutes
Language English
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From the author of Songdogs, a magnificent work of imagination and history set in the tunnels of New York City.

In the early years of the century, Nathan Walker leaves his native Georgia for New York City and the most dangerous job in America. A sandhog, he burrows beneath the East River, digging the tunnel that will carry trains from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Above ground, the sandhogs--black, white, Irish, Italian--keep their distance from each other until a spectacular accident welds a bond between Walker and his fellow diggers--a bond that will bless and curse the next three generations.

Years later, Treefrog, a homeless man driven below by a shameful secret, endures a punishing winter in his subway nest. In tones ranging from bleak to disturbingly funny, Treefrog recounts his strategies of survival--killing rats, scavenging for discarded soda cans, washing in the snow. Between Nathan Walker and Treefrog stretch seventy years of ill-fated loves and unintended crimes.

In a triumph of plotting, the two stories fuse to form a tale of family, race, and redemption that is as bold and fabulous as New York City itself. In This Side of Brightness, Colum McCann confirms his place in the front ranks of modern writers.

Colum McCannĀ is the internationally bestselling author of the novelsĀ TransAtlantic,Ā Let the Great World Spin,Ā Zoli,Ā Dancer,Ā This Side of Brightness, andĀ Songdogs, as well as three critically acclaimed story collections and the nonfiction bookĀ Letters to a Young Writer. His fiction has been published in over forty languages. He has received many international honors, including the National Book Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, the Pushcart Prize, and an Oscar nomination for his short filmĀ Everything in This Country Must. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as the Irish association of artists AosdĆ”na, and he has also received a Chevalier des Artes et des Lettres award from the French government. In addition, he has won awards in Italy, Germany, and China. A contributor toĀ The New Yorker,Ā The New York Times,Ā The Atlantic, andĀ The Paris Review, he teaches in the Hunter College MFA Creative Writing program. He lives with his family in New York City, where he is the cofounder of the global nonprofit story exchange organization Narrative 4.

Dion Graham, from HBOā€™sĀ The Wire, also narratesĀ The First 48Ā on A&E. A multiple AudieĀ Awardā€“winning and critically acclaimed actor and narrator, he has performed on Broadway, off Broadway, internationally, in films, and in several hit television series.

Colum McCannĀ is the internationally bestselling author of the novelsĀ TransAtlantic,Ā Let the Great World Spin,Ā Zoli,Ā Dancer,Ā This Side of Brightness, andĀ Songdogs, as well as three critically acclaimed story collections and the nonfiction bookĀ Letters to a Young Writer. His fiction has been published in over forty languages. He has received many international honors, including the National Book Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, the Pushcart Prize, and an Oscar nomination for his short filmĀ Everything in This Country Must. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as the Irish association of artists AosdĆ”na, and he has also received a Chevalier des Artes et des Lettres award from the French government. In addition, he has won awards in Italy, Germany, and China. A contributor toĀ The New Yorker,Ā The New York Times,Ā The Atlantic, andĀ The Paris Review, he teaches in the Hunter College MFA Creative Writing program. He lives with his family in New York City, where he is the cofounder of the global nonprofit story exchange organization Narrative 4.

Dion Graham, from HBOā€™sĀ The Wire, also narratesĀ The First 48Ā on A&E. A multiple AudieĀ Awardā€“winning and critically acclaimed actor and narrator, he has performed on Broadway, off Broadway, internationally, in films, and in several hit television series.

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