Book Club Guide

Let the Great World Spin

by Colum McCann · 2009 · Literary Fiction

Key themes

The extraordinary act that touches ordinary lives — and what it reveals
New York in 1974 — the beauty and poverty of the city at its worst
The network of lives that constitutes what a city actually is

About this book

In 1974, Philippe Petit walks a tightrope between the Twin Towers — and the same day touches the lives of a dozen strangers across New York. McCann's National Book Award-winning novel is a formal experiment in interconnection, asking what it means to share a city and a moment in history with people whose lives will never touch.

Published in 2009, Let the Great World Spin won the National Book Award. McCann drew on the historical wire walk and on extensive research into New York in 1974, including interviews with former prostitutes, mothers and Vietnam veterans.

Discussion questions

The novel radiates outward from a single historical event — Petit's wire walk — to touch many different lives across New York. What does McCann achieve through this centrifugal structure?
Several characters never see or think about the wire walk at all. What does McCann say through these absent centres — about what connects people who have nothing in common?
The novel spans many registers — a monk, a prostitute, a judge, a group mother. How does McCann manage these different voices — and does he achieve a convincing plurality?
The novel is set in 1974 but clearly written in the shadow of 9/11 (the Towers appear repeatedly, and their destruction is implicit in the future). How does this temporal double-vision work?
Let the Great World Spin won the National Book Award. What does it do that earns this — and where, if anywhere, does the formal ambition outrun the emotional content?