Having discovered Colum McCann through his latest novel [See Previous Post: TWIN TOWERS: MOVING STORIES & SPECTACULAR STUNTS], decided to immediately read some more. These are both wonderful powerful stories - about Zoli, a Romani poet and Rudolph Nureyev, the dancer of the title. In the first, the story is loosely based on the real-life Roma poet Papusza, which McCann acknowledges. In the second, McCann skilfully brings a depth and skill of storytelling to his imagined history of Nureyev.
The way McCann tells the stories, through multiple viewpoints - something he has developed and refined to a high art - without losing the storytelling drive, is something I find most interesting. McCann likes to do detailed research reading combined with travel - to modern-day Romania (for Zoli), Russia for Nureyev.
Zoli haunted me but Dancer made me cry. Both books will take you on remarkable journeys of the soul and the spirit.
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