Colum McCann's new novel is intricate and ambitious. Mining the 19th and 20th century connections between Ireland and America, he animates the historical  context that embraces four generations of women whose stories are at the heart of the novel.

The novel comprises three books. The first book has three very different sections all based on documented historical events that link Ireland and America.  The first of these sections deals with Alcock and Brown's pioneering trans-Atlantic flight from Newfoundland to Ireland in 1919. The details of  the chilly and racketty flight, which ends with the plane nose-down in an Irish bog, are completely enthralling.  The second section sends us back to Ireland in 1845 where Frederic Douglass, the African American anti-slave campaigner is touring a famine gripped Ireland. The third part follows the work of an American Senator who is involved in the peace process that will produce the 1998 Good Friday accord bringing to an end the "troubles" of northern Ireland. Book one delivers daring, inspiration and perseverance. In each of these sections, the observant reader will notice women witnessing the drama being played out by the men.

 McCann opens Book Two with a quote from Wendell Berry - "But this is not the story of a life. It is the story of lives knit together, overlapping in succession, rising again from grave after grave."  Here McCann goes on to knit together the lives of Lily Duggan, her daughter and her granddaughter with the historical events of the first book.

Inspired by Frederic Douglass, the Irish maid Lily Duggan, emigrates to America. Her daughter Emily becomes a journalist who takes her mother to Newfoundland to witness Alcock and Brown take off on their trans-Atlantic adventure.  Emily returns to Ireland with her daughter Charlotte, to reconnect with the pioneering pilots. Charlotte marries an Irishman and takes up residence in Belfast. She has a daughter Hannah, and grandson Tomas, who, at the age of 19, in the year 1978, is shot dead  - "I'm still not certain whether is was the UVF or UFF or INLA or whatever other species of idiot was around at that time.(p254)  McCann renders the lives of these women in stunning detail - from the labour of ice production and tranportation that becomes part of Lily's new life; to the unscrupulous journalist who exploits Charlotte's talent; to the fearful sound of guns, innocent and not so innocent, in the lough in north east Ireland where Tomas' life is extinguished.

The final book, in the voice of Hannah, involves the surrender of both property and connection to the past. It almost encompasses the end of history for the family with the mother surviving the brutal extinction of her child. It does not give much away to say that the final sentence of this novel is - "We have to admire the world for not ending on us." (p295) A bleak summary.

What do I take from the extraordinary sweep of this book? Perhaps the idea that men make the cataclysms and women live the consequences - they nurse the injured, raise the children, mourn for the dead in times of tragedy and support each other. As Hannah observes, "The conspiracy of women. We are in it together, make no mistake," (p 287)

Read this book observantly and it will reward you.