TransAtlantic
About TransAtlantic
An ocean can divide lives and carry their consequences toward one another. In TransAtlantic, Colum McCann places that movement at the center of a novel linking Ireland and North America across generations. Public events give the book its recognizable landmarks, while private lives change the scale on which those events are understood.
The historical strands include Frederick Douglass's visit to Ireland, Alcock and Brown's Atlantic flight in 1919, and George Mitchell's involvement in the Northern Ireland peace negotiations. Around them, McCann follows a line of women whose experiences connect the novel's different periods. Their stories keep the narrative from becoming simply a procession of celebrated men and achievements.
History, Memory, and Private Lives
The book invites attention to how fiction organizes memory. A public success may look decisive from a distance, while its meaning remains unsettled for the people whose lives surround it. McCann's crossings make room for migration, family inheritance and the uneven relation between historical change and personal loss.
Questions for Discussion
This is a useful novel to read slowly and discuss across its sections. What changes when a historical figure is encountered through the needs and perceptions of someone less visible? Which connections are made by the characters, and which depend on the reader's memory? How does the movement between periods alter the apparent importance of a single event? The novel offers a setting for thinking about history as something lived in households and relationships as well as recorded in treaties and commemorations.
Edition: Random House Trade Paperbacks paperback, 2014-05-20, 336 pages. ISBN 9780812981926. This is a publisher-documented reading edition; the printing visible in the New York library photograph has not been established.
ORDER NOW
- Related products
- Recently viewed