Cable breakage and darkness of the soul

Colum McCann’s new novel Twist hinges on a major break in underwater cables that carry the world’s information. Early on, there’s a scenario that’s chillingly real: the internet down, no cell phone service, no ATM service, and stores accepting cash only. “We were like stunned birds,” the book’s narrator tells us. He’s Anthony Fennell, an introspective Irish journalist and playwright assigned to profile the events of cable repair by a ship, the Georges Lecointe, off the West Coast of Africa. He’s eager to dwell in this story. That’s because the 48-year-old Fennell craves his own repair from years of drinking that have caused personal wreckage. He wants to change.

Fennell takes a taxi to Cape Town’s port and boards the Georges Lecointe crewed by 53 men and fellow Irishman John Conway. He’s the mission chief. As a highly experienced freediver, Conway’s familiar with the ocean’s unfathomable depths. He’s also a charismatic leader, patient under pressure. His shipmates admire him – think he’s a hero — but Fennell senses a dark side to Conway. He hovers in the chief’s orbit, obsessed with cracking whatever the man is hiding.

It’s an obvious parallel: Fennell probing Conway’s depths as the crew drops a grappling hook through the pitch-black ocean water to scrape the floor, day after day, searching for the broken cable. What’s also obvious is the story’s likeness to The Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad’s classic novella set on the Congo River. Both are about an African boat journey and the darkness of a man’s soul. Author Colum McCann proficiently handles these easily recognized techniques without carrying them too far. Their presence powerfully shapes the narrative.

Each sweep of the ocean floor takes 15 hours. After many unsuccessful days, the victory horn finally blares. Two more cable breaks prolong Fennell’s time at sea. With no alcohol on board, he sobers up and composes letters to his son, whom he hasn’t seen for a decade. Meanwhile, this determined journalist discovers John Conway isn’t who he says he is. Conway revokes Fennell’s phone and computer access. He’s fed up with the journalist. “Everything gets fixed and we all stay broken,” he sneers in a confrontation. It’s one of several outstanding moments in this stunning novel.

McCann writes with such beauty about the middle of the ocean, capturing the awe of its other-worldly environment, and also the shame of our intrusion. Indeed, the first break happens when the Congo River floods and expels its garbage into the sea. As the Georges Lecointe drags the ocean floor, the metal hook could just as likely snag a rock or tree branch as a car muffler or plastic chair.

Conway confounds the crew with a shocking event. What happens to him drives the dramatic momentum. The heart of this story, however, lies with Fennell’s wrestling with issues of breakage and repair of the human sort. “I was in a small room, in a small ship,” he tells us, “and the task at hand was to knit at least some distant parts of myself anew.” That he does, as well as find resolution for his speculations about John Conway in this exceptional and timely tale of mystery, idealism, and our digital vulnerability.

A version of this review aired on NPR member station WOSU 89.7 FM, broadcasting in Central Ohio. Twist by Colum McCann is published by Random House.