THE BOOK PRIZE | Colum McCANN

The Jury of the 33rd Lucien Barrière Book Prize of the Deauville American Film Festival - Frédéric Beigbeder (writer, publisher and journalist), Gilles-Martin Chauffier (writer and editor in chief at Paris Match), André Halimi (journalist, writer and director), Jean-Claude Lamy (journalist and writer), Eric Neuhoff (journalist and writer) and Gonzague Saint-Bris (journalist and writer) – will award its prize on Thursday 10th of September to Colum McCann for his book LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN (ET QUE LE VASTE MONDE POURSUIVE SA COURSE FOLLE), published by Editions Belfond. The author will be in Deauville to receive his prize. THE BOOK On August 7, 1974, Philippe Petit walks on a rope tight between the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. In the slums of the Bronx, an Irish priest is looking for God among prostitutes, the old and the poor. In a rich apartment on Park Avenue, the mother of a soldier killed in Vietnam feels she is going insane by suffering what she can’t accept. In downtown trendy nightclubs, a couple of artists stand too close to the sun after becoming famous too quickly. Along subway lines, a teenager writes graffiti and dreams he becomes a famous photographer. At the other end of the country, computer students play as if they ruled the world. In a New York jail, a prostitute screams with despair… THE AUTHOR Colum McCann was born in the suburbs of Dublin in 1965 and now lives in New York. After studying journalism, he works for the Evening Herald, then becomes “junior correspondent” for the Dublin Evening Press in the 80s. When 19, he goes to the United States with only a backpack, a bike and a map as luggage. He travels from one side of the country to the other, experiencing various jobs: cab driver, teacher, hiking guide… He tells about his trip in “Sisters”, his first book, which is awarded the prestigious Hennessy Irish literature Book Prize and the New Writer of the Year in 1992. Though he read Beckett, Joyce and Yeats, his real influences are American: he used to read Jack Kerouac and Gary Snider when he was 15. Colum McCann regularly writes in the American press and magazines and teaches at New York’s Henter College. He wrote four novels, , “Songdogs” (1996), “This Side of Brightness” (1998), “Dancer” (2003) and “Zoli” (2007) and two collections of short stories, “Fishing the Sloe-Black River” (1999) – Irish literature Rooney prize in 1994 - and “Everything in This Country Must” (2001), which was adapted for the screen by Gary McKendry with a screenplay by Colum McCann and was Oscar-nominated in 2005 for Best Short Film.