For readers in the U.K.
McCa_9781400063734_4p_01_r1.w.qxp 4/13/09 2:31 PM Page ii A L S O B Y C O L U M M C C A N N
Zoli
Dancer
Everything in This Country Must
This Side of Brightness
Songdogs
Fishing the Sloe-Black River
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w o r l d s p i n
A N o v e l
C O L U M M c C A N N
b
R A N D O M H O U S E
N E W Y O R K
McCa_9781400063734_4p_01_r1.w.qxp 4/13/09 2:31 PM Page vi Let the Great World Spin is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical and public figures, are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical or public figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are entirely fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the entirely fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2009 by Colum McCann
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
R a n d o m H o us e and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
l i b r a ry o f c o n g r e s s c a t a l o g i n g - i n - p u b l i c a t i o n d a t a McCann, Colum.
Let the great world spin : a novel / Colum McCann.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-4000-6373-4
1. Immigrants—Fiction. 2. Irish—New York (State)—New York—Fiction. 3. Judges’
spouses—Fiction. 4. Grief—Fiction. 5. Teenage mothers—Fiction. 6. Petit, Philippe, 1949– —Fiction. 7. Tightrope walking—Fiction. 8. New York (N.Y.)—Fiction.
9. Nineteen seventies—Fiction. 10. Psychological fiction. I. Title.
PR6063.C335L47 2009
823'.914—dc22 2008046963
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper www.atrandom.com
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
f i r s t e d i t i o n
Book design by Barbara M. Bachman
Title-page drawing by Matteo Pericoli The photograph of Philippe Petit on page 237 is reprinted here courtesy of Rex USA and is © Rex USA.
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And, of course, Allison.
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“All the lives we could live, all the people we will never know, never will be, they are everywhere. That is what the world is.”
—Aleksandar Hemon,
t h e l a z a r u s p r o j e c t
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T H O S E W H O S A W H I M H U S H E D