Colum McCann is one of my favourite authors, ever since I read his debut collection of short stories 'Fishing the Sloe Black River'. The title of that book alone is a clue to his mastery of language. In 'Let the Great World Spin' he weaves together the stories of a diverse group of people in New York. Two Irish brothers, one living as a monk, prostitutes and drug addicts, artists, mothers trying to make sense of their sons' deaths in Vietnam. And as they act out their lives, high above the city, Philippe Petit is preparing to walk on a high rope between the Twin Towers.