The English language has no specific word for the parent that has lost a child. There exist words for orphan, widow and widower, but there is no word that captures and conveys this tragic type of loss.
It has been eleven years since Diane Foley''s son, the American journalist James Foley, was kidnapped in northern Syria, and nearly ten since that day in August 2014 when she would learn that he had been murdered by ISIS in a public beheading that would ricochet in video around the world. A whole decade. Time rushes past. And yet, for Diane, that moment is unending.
In American Mother, legendary author Colum McCann tells Diane''s story as she recalls the months of his captivity, the efforts made to bring him home and the days following his death, in which Diane came face to face with one of the men responsible for her son''s kidnapping and torture. A testament to the power of radical empathy and moral courage, American Mother takes us inside one woman''s extraordinary journey to find connection in a world torn asunder, and to fight for others as a way to keep her son''s memory alive.>
A darkly epic novel about connection, disconnection and destruction - from the New York Times-bestselling, National Book Award-winning, Booker Prize-longlisted author of Let the Great World Spin
Anthony Fennell, a writer, has travelled to Cape Town with a simple aim: to find and board the Georges Lecointe, a cable repair vessel captained by the mysterious, charismatic Chief of Mission John Conway.
As the boat embarks along the west coast of Africa, Fennell settles into the routines and rituals of life out at sea. But as the mission falters, it becomes clear that Conway is in crisis: and that a terrible, violent tragedy is unfolding in the life he has left behind on land.
When Conway disappears, Fennel must set out to find him. His discoveries will bring him face to face with the darkest contradictions of the human heart - and to confront the possibility that the ties that bind us might be better off broken.>
''An extraordinary story of grace, forgiveness and moral courage'' Patrick Radden Keefe
A 2024 HIGHLIGHT IN THE OBSERVER, GUARDIAN AND IRISH TIMES
AN IMMEDIATE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
The English language has no specific word for the parent that has lost a child. There exist words for orphan, widow and widower, but there is no word that captures and conveys this tragic type of loss.
It has been eleven years since Diane Foley''s son, the American journalist James Foley, was kidnapped in northern Syria, and nearly ten since that day in August 2014 when she would learn that he had been murdered by ISIS in a public beheading that would ricochet in video around the world. A whole decade. Time rushes past. And yet, for Diane, that moment is unending.
In American Mother, legendary author Colum McCann tells Diane''s story as she recalls the months of his captivity, the efforts made to bring him home and the days following his death, in which Diane came face to face with one of the men responsible for her son''s kidnapping and torture. A testament to the power of radical empathy and moral courage, American Mother takes us inside one woman''s extraordinary journey to find connection in a world torn asunder, and to fight for others as a way to keep her son''s memory alive.>
