Colum McCann explores our ability to get up after the fall, intimate, political or artistic, in a poignant work on human loneliness, the desire for bond, modern colonialism, global warming, social commitment and the despair of those who refuse to suffer.
We are all small pieces in the collision. Our lives bounce here and there at the bottom of the sea. We may gently rub each other for some time, but in the end, it’s inevitable, we hit each other and fly to pieces.
Anthony Fennell, an Irish writer in doubt, hopes to find inspiration with a report on an intriguing fact: the breakage of the cables of Internet providers buried in the open sea. A giant breakdown of telephone networks in Africa gives him the opportunity to embark on one of the boats in charge of repairs.
The head of mission is John Conway, an Irish compatriot. Fennell is fascinated by the charisma of this outstanding freedrover engineer, and by the couple he forms with Zanele, a South African actress.
As the boat goes up the coast of West Africa, Fennell and Conway will be faced with a tragic irony: the cables they have to repair carry news that could shake their respective existence…
