Description

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER — A compelling and inventive exploration of connection and disconnection in our digital era, this acclaimed novel penetrates the hidden undersea world where the internet truly lives. From the celebrated, bestselling author of Apeirogon and Let the Great World Spin comes a resonant story of fractured lives, technological wonder, and human vulnerability.

“The spirit of Joseph Conrad hovers over the text, but here the heart of darkness lies at the bottom of the ocean.”—Salman Rushdie

“Everything gets fixed, and we all stay broken.”

Anthony Fennell, an Irish reporter and playwright, is sent on assignment to examine the extraordinary cables stretched along the ocean floor—thin fiber-optic threads that carry all the world’s messages, images, memories, data, and voices. Although these cables are remarkably reliable, they occasionally rupture, plunging humanity’s essential communications into darkness.

His investigation leads him to the west coast of Africa, where Anthony is confronted by the hidden, harsh reality behind our sleek digital facade. He meets a fellow Irishman, John Conway, a skilled engineer and gifted freediver who oversees the cable repair operations aboard a specialized vessel. Conway, however, is dealing with his own emotional turmoil: in love with Zanele, a vibrant South African actress about to embark on her own literary path in London, he struggles with distance and loss.

When Conway and Fennell sail northward to navigate a series of devastating cable ruptures beneath the ocean’s surface, they discover that what the cables carry—heartbreaking truths, life-changing news—has the power to completely reshape their lives. At sea, both men come face-to-face with the essential questions of what it means to love, to belong, and to lose ourselves in a world so deeply connected yet desperately isolated. Is it possible to repair our fractured selves, piecing back together the delicate threads of our stories and pasts?

Profound yet urgently readable, Twist acts as both meditation and exploration—a powerful narrative on truth, storytelling, and the yearning to bridge the deepest divides.