A NOVEL FOR OUR TIME

In which fiber-optic cables on the ocean floor are a metaphor for ...basically modern human existence

- RYAN D'AGOSTINO

COLUM MCCANN, THE NATIONAL BOOK Award-winning novelist, stands in the art deco lobby of the old Western Union headquarters in lower Manhattan. The building is a hub in the infrastructure of the Internet, housing a warren of fiber-optic cables and wires through which zooms human communication-TikToks, texts, secret data, emojis, emails, all of Wall Street-on its way to cables the width of garden hoses crisscrossing the ocean floor.

McCann's mesmerizing new novel, Twist, transpires among a crew that repairs undersea cables-the same kinds of cables that the governments of Russia and China stand accused of damaging to disrupt the flow of information to their adversaries. Twist is a novel for our time.

The only souls in the lobby are the guards; the elevators are silent. It's like Kubrick, or Severance. McCann approaches a security guard.

Colum McCann: Hi! The guard smiles, sweet but wan.

CM: This is where the world's Internet all comes through, is that right? Through this building?

Guard: I'm sorry, you can't stand there.

CM: Very sorry. It's beautiful in here.

Guard: I don't really know what goes on in this building.

CM [Pause. Smiling politely]: Mm-hm. We stand like tourists, admiring the pristine lobby. You could eat off the floor.