Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed.

Or you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

From KCRW Santa Monica, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and this is Bookworm.

I'm delighted to have with me, Colin McCann.

This is the third time he's been on Bookworm.

We talked about his novel Zoli and his novel dancer.

And now he's written what to me is his richest and most interesting book.

He has become, having been born in Ireland, an American writer with this book.

And it takes place virtually all on one day,

but it carries resonances of a second day throughout.

The day is August 7, 1974,

the day that the French tightrope walker

walked, danced, capered

between the two World Trade Center towers.

This is an act of great joy and surprise,

but a novel written now contains the shadow of another day, of course,

September 11th.

And the book seems to take those two days as its poles.

And extraordinary joy and playfulness is mixed with tremendous sorrow.

...