Colum McCann

Dancer and Zoli

Biography

Colum McCann was born in Dublin Ireland

in 1965
His father was a journalist and nurtured
Colum’s love for
writing by surrounding him with books.
He began his career following in his
Inspiration
In the late 1980s, McCann decided to bike
ride through North America for a year.
After that, he decided to travel Japan for
another year which is where he met his wife
Allison
The reason- McCann had traveled to
Massachusetts on a business trip and when
he attempted to write a “great Irish
American novel” he realized he couldn’t
possibly write anything because he had not
the experience of seeing other people and
world.
Continued
Another source of McCann’s inspiration
comes from his grandfather. He only met
him once when he was eight, but he recalls
him telling him stories of war, love and
drinking. McCann remembers the characters
his grandfather would create and from then
on believed in the importance of good
characters.
Most of McCann’s novels are based off the
lives and places he has observed. He has
explained that he feels it is important to tell
these stories because “if not him, who will?”
Of the eight books McCann has published,
they have all been noted for their historical
reference, interesting mixture of characters,
and accuracy in setting. McCann
acknowledges these praises to his belief in
the importance of travel and character story
telling.
Awards
McCann has won numerous awards for his
work including:
2003 Esquire Magazine’s “Writer of the
year”
The Pushcart Prize
The Rooney Prize
2003 The Irish independent Hughes
Independent Novel of the Year
2002 the Irish Princess Grace Memorial
Literary Award
He has been inducted into the Hennessy Hall
of Fame for Irish Literature
Novels
2009 Let the Great World Spin
2008 The World Unfurled
2007 Zoli
2004 Dancer
2004 Everything in This Country Must
2004 Fishing the Sloe-Black River
2003 This Side of Brightness
1996 Songdogs
Dancer
Summary
 This is a fictionalized story based on the life of
Rudolf Nureyev who was a famous dancer who
defected from Russia in 1961.
 The story begins in “Rudik’s” childhood as a
young boy in Russia. His father has just returned
from the war
 Rudik begins to take dance lessons and
eventually moves to Leningrad to pursue
dancing
 He is vulgar, bold, rude, and brilliant
 He defects to America in 1961 where he
continues his dance career until his old age
 The novel concludes at a time very close to
Interesting Aspect
In his novel Dancer, McCann tells the story
from the perspective of seven characters-
changing throughout the novel.
This method of writing a biographical novel
was very successful because it allows the
reader a deeper understanding of the main
subject (Rudolf Nureyev) by seeing how
others viewed him rather than just one
character’s views and opinions.
In Dancer, we learned about the life of Rudik
through himself, his first dance teacher, her
husband, his dance teacher’s daughter,
Rudik’s sister, his friend Victor, Rudik’s
Passage from the Novel
“The magic of dance, young man, is
something purely accidental. The irony of
this is that you have to work harder than
anyone else for the accident to occur. Then,
when it happens, it is the only thing in your
life guaranteed never to happen again. This,
to some, is an unhappy state of affairs, and
yet to others, it is the only ecstasy.”- Colum
McCann, Dancer, 68
Zoli
Summary
Zoli is the story of Zoli, a gypsy growing up
in Czechoslovakia. She is part of the Roma
people. It is the 1940s and her people are
being driven out and murdered by the
fascist guard. She and her grandfather are
the only to escape. They travel to find new
company, and on the way, Zoli learns to
read and write and beings to exercise her
gift for writing and singing.
Skip ahead a few years and Stephen Swan
arrives from England to translate the now
alleged famous poetry by Zoli. They end up
Interesting Aspect
With this novel, I found McCann to be very
photographical in Zoli. As I read the book, I
felt like I was watching it rather than reading
it.
He described settings and characters in such
great detail. It felt raw and true. This novel
would be a great example of showing rather
than telling.