Six of My 2025 Reads: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

At the top of 1997 I sat down and listed all the books I’d read up to that point. I came up with ~40 titles. I’m sure this was not all of them, but it was a fair start. Beginning that same year I began to keep a list of the books I’d read each year.

As we’ve ended 2025, I’m highlighting six of the past year’s reads—a book of poetry, two novels, and three non-fiction titles. Perhaps you’ll find one you wish to add to your 2026 reading stack. Of course, I’d recommend you add all of them.

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

In 2022 I read McCann’s novel Apeirogon after reading a review in the Wall Street Journal. Apeirogon stunned me in it’s form and scale. (Yes. You should read it.) It also introduced me to McCann’s work. This year I’ve read three of his novels and one of his story collections.

Let the Great World Spin is set in 1974 New York City. The novel weaves together four stories: an Irish monk’s work among prostitutes in the Bronx, a group of mothers grieving the loss of their sons to the war in Vietnam, a young artist who witnesses a tragic accident, and one of the prostitutes trying to find a way to care for her family. These stories are set against the backdrop of the factual tight rope walk between the World Trade Center towers on 7 August 1974, performed by Philippe Petit. The novel’s title comes from the Tennyson poem “Locksley Hall.”

Let the Great World Spin is an excellent modern novel. It captures the time and place flawlessly, and interlinks the stories of these characters in a way that feels not one bit contrived. Meanwhile, Petit’s feat transpires above it all, further infusing the novel with risk and drama. Reader experience must be central when creating fiction, and this one delivers.

Leave a comment with a title you read in 2025!