Let the Great World Spin
One summer morning in 1974, a tightrope walker crosses the Twin Towers while the lives of strangers across New York quietly collide.
When it was written
- Written
- About 2005-2008
- Publication
- 2009, Random House (United States); Bloomsbury (United Kingdom)
Colum McCann, an Irish writer who had settled in New York, wrote the novel in the years after the attacks of September 11, 2001. He has said that he wanted to approach that event indirectly, through the earlier moment when the towers were a source of wonder.
The book draws on the real high-wire walk by Philippe Petit in August 1974 and on the grittier New York of that decade. McCann researched the city, its street life and the Vietnam era to build a chorus of voices from different classes and races.
What it’s about
Spoiler-freeOn a summer morning in 1974, New York wakes to news that a man is walking on a wire between the two towers of the World Trade Center. Below him the city goes on, divided by money, race and belief. Colum McCann follows several lives that seem to have nothing to do with one another.
In the South Bronx, an Irish lay monk named Corrigan lives among prostitutes and addicts, giving them shelter and a ride, and asking nothing back. His brother Ciaran arrives from Dublin and cannot tell whether he is looking at a saint or a man wearing himself down.
On the Upper East Side, Claire hosts mothers who have lost sons in Vietnam, and Gloria, a Black woman from the Bronx, joins them. Their grief crosses lines the city rarely lets people cross, and the book opens outward from these rooms into many other lives.
This summary stops at roughly the end of the first act. Everything after that sits behind a spoiler gate.
Themes
Spoiler-freeFaith and service
Corrigan believes God is found by living among the discarded rather than above them. The novel asks what such devotion costs and whether it is holiness, pride or both.
Grief and connection
Mothers who lost sons in a distant war share a room and a pain. Their meetings show how loss can bridge differences that daily life keeps in place.
Class and race in New York
The city of the book is split between wealthy apartments and ruined Bronx streets. McCann sets these worlds side by side and shows how little each sees of the other.
Wonder in a wounded city
The wire walk offers a moment of beauty in a grim, struggling era. The novel looks at how the extraordinary can lift people briefly without erasing their troubles.
Memory and the way events are remembered
The book is conscious of which events a city chooses to remember and which it lets slip away. Public spectacle and private lives sit uneasily together.
Characters
Fates hiddenCorrigan
Irish lay monk in the BronxDevout and self-denying, he lives in a bare tenement and serves the street women who need shelter and rides. His faith is physical and intense.
What happens to CorriganHideSpoilers
What happensHe is killed in a car crash alongside Jazzlyn, struck by a car driven by a drunk Lara who flees the scene.
Ciaran
Corrigan's younger brotherHe travels from Dublin to see the life his brother has chosen, torn between admiration, guilt and unease.
What happens to CiaranHideSpoilers
What happensHe identifies Corrigan's body, meets Adelita and comes to understand who his brother really was.
Adelita
Guatemalan nurseA nurse whom Corrigan has come to love, setting his feelings against his vow of celibacy.
What happens to AdelitaHideSpoilers
What happensShe meets Ciaran after Corrigan's death and helps him see the man his brother was.
Tillie Henderson
Street prostitute and motherA hard-lived woman working the Bronx streets with her daughter Jazzlyn.
What happens to Tillie HendersonHideSpoilers
What happensShe is in jail after the crash, blaming herself for bringing Jazzlyn into prostitution and fearing for Jazzlyn's two daughters.
Jazzlyn Henderson
Tillie's daughter, street prostituteA young woman working the same streets as her mother and a mother of two girls.
What happens to Jazzlyn HendersonHideSpoilers
What happensShe dies in the car crash with Corrigan, leaving her two daughters without a mother.
Claire
Upper East Side hostessA wealthy woman who hosts grieving mothers of Vietnam dead, uneasy about the gap in wealth and race among them.
What happens to ClaireHideSpoilers
What happensThe novel leaves her carrying her grief, her meetings having become the most honest hours of her week.
Gloria
Bronx mother who lost sonsA Black woman from the Bronx who joins Claire's group of bereaved mothers.
What happens to GloriaHideSpoilers
What happensShe remains among the mothers, bound to them by shared loss across the divides of the city.
Lara
Privileged sculptorAn artist from a comfortable world who moves through a very different New York from the Bronx.
What happens to LaraHideSpoilers
What happensAfter driving drunk and fleeing the crash, she is consumed by guilt and investigates the people she harmed.
Blaine
Lara's companionLara's friend, who is with her on the night of the crash.
What happens to BlaineHideSpoilers
What happensHe is in the car with Lara when she strikes Corrigan's van and runs.
Plot summary
Contains spoilersLet the Great World Spin in 1 part, in our own words.
This section gives away the whole storyA short summary including the ending. Open it only if you have finished the book or don’t mind knowing.
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A short summary including the ending. Open it only if you have finished the book or don’t mind knowing.
- Book One
The Monk, the Wire, the Crash
In the summer of 1974, an Irish lay monk named Corrigan lives in a rundown South Bronx tenement, serving prostitutes, addicts and the destitute. His brother Ciaran travels from Dublin to New York and is bewildered and awed by the life Corrigan has chosen. Corrigan opens his bare apartment to the women, drives them between their corners, and asks nothing of them. He believes God is found in serving those society has discarded. Among the women are Tillie Henderson and her daughter Jazzlyn.
Ciaran watches his brother with admiration, guilt and unease, unable to decide whether Corrigan is a saint or is destroying himself. Memories of their Catholic childhood in Dublin explain how Corrigan's faith grew so intense and physical. Ciaran also learns that Corrigan has fallen in love with Adelita, a nurse from Guatemala. The attraction pulls against his vow of celibacy, and Ciaran realizes that Corrigan's faith has always been a struggle as well as a certainty.
Across the city, on the Upper East Side, Claire hosts a gathering of mothers who have lost sons in Vietnam. Her own son Joshua is dead. Gloria, a Black woman from the Bronx, joins Janet, Jacqueline and Marcia in Claire's elegant apartment. Claire is uneasy about the gap in wealth and race between them, yet the meetings have become the most honest hours of her week. That same morning, news spreads that Philippe Petit has walked a wire between the Twin Towers, and the women feel a brief wonder amid their grief.
Corrigan and Jazzlyn die in a car crash. Lara, a privileged sculptor, was driving drunk with Blaine and struck Corrigan's van, then ran. Ciaran arrives to identify his brother's body, meets Adelita, and begins to see who Corrigan really was. In jail, Tillie blames herself for bringing Jazzlyn into prostitution and fears for Jazzlyn's two daughters, left without a mother. Lara, consumed by guilt, investigates the people she harmed. The story closes on how the walk is remembered while the two deaths pass almost unnoticed.
Who it’s for
- Readers of literary fiction
- Fans of novels about New York
- People who like interwoven, many-voiced stories
- Readers interested in 1970s America
- Anyone drawn to stories of grief and grace
Content notes
- Prostitution and street life
- Death of a child and parental grief
- Drunk driving and a fatal crash
- War loss (Vietnam)
- Poverty and addiction
Suggested age: 16+
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FAQ
What is Let the Great World Spin about?
It is a novel of interlocking lives in New York in August 1974, the morning Philippe Petit walks a wire between the Twin Towers. It follows an Irish monk in the Bronx, his brother, street women, and grieving mothers on the Upper East Side. Together they form a portrait of a divided city.
Is Let the Great World Spin based on a true story?
The wire walk by Philippe Petit in 1974 is a real event, and the New York setting is real. The characters and their stories are invented by Colum McCann.
Who wrote Let the Great World Spin and when was it published?
Colum McCann, an Irish author living in New York, wrote it. It was published in 2009.
Did Let the Great World Spin win any awards?
Yes. It won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2009 and the International Dublin Literary Award in 2011.
Is the book about September 11?
Not directly. McCann wrote it in the shadow of that event, but it is set in 1974 and shows the towers as a source of wonder. The later attacks are not its subject.
Do I need to know about Philippe Petit to read it?
No. The book explains enough about the walk for any reader. The walk acts as a thread that links the characters rather than being the main plot.
Is the book hard to read?
It uses many narrators and shifts in style, time and place, so it asks for some attention at first. The prose is rich but the human stories are clear, and the threads come together as you go.
Is there a lot of religion in the novel?
Faith is central through Corrigan, a lay monk, and his brother's response to it. The book treats belief as a struggle and a form of service rather than preaching.
What happens to Corrigan? Spoilers
This answer explains how the book ends.Show spoilersHide spoilers
Corrigan dies in a car crash with Jazzlyn after Lara, driving drunk, hits his van and flees. Ciaran then identifies his brother's body and meets Adelita.
How does Let the Great World Spin end? Spoilers
This answer explains how the book ends.Show spoilersHide spoilers
The story closes on how the wire walk is remembered while the deaths of Corrigan and Jazzlyn pass almost unnoticed. Tillie is jailed and worries about Jazzlyn's daughters, and Lara, filled with guilt, looks into the lives she harmed.
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