Colum McCann
Colum McCann Tells Us How Two Grieving Dads — One Israeli, One Palestinian — Inspired His Newest Novel
According to Irish writer Colum McCann, his newest novel, Apeirogon, is the scariest thing he’s ever written. Set in Israel and Palestine, the novel tells the true story of two fathers who are united by grief: Israeli Rami Elhanan, whose 13-year-old daughter, Smadar, was killed in a suicide bombing in 1997, and Palestinian Bassam Aramin, whose 10-year-old daughter, Abir, was killed by an Israeli soldier in 2007.
McCann fictionalizes the fathers’ lives, but the core of the novel is true.
