This Side of Brightness (33 page)

Finally, my thanks to the men and women of the tunnels of New York who allowed me into their lives and their homes, most especially Bernard and Marco. Neither of them are in this book, but it would have been impossible to write without them.

A
LSO BY
C
OLUM
M
C
C
ANN

Dancer

Everything in this Country Must

Fishing the Sloe-Black River

Songdogs

Zoli

 

“A rarity in this cool era—an urban novel with a social conscience, employing the large canvas once used by Steinbeck and Algren.”

—
The Washington Post

“McCann achieves a taut balance between high-minded literary effort and soap-opera-like page turner.… skillful and subtle.”

—
Chicago Tribune

“A breathtakingly mature novel, a feat of daring … profoundly spiritual.”

—
The Baltimore Sun

“McCann's haunting, lyrical novel resonates with stark contradictions characteristic of the city in which it takes place. It unsparingly depicts violence and drug use but also captures the unearthly beauty of the world beneath the city streets.”

—
Newsday

“A beautiful, lyrical novel.”

—
Esquire

“Bold and mesmerizing … McCann has created a rich tapestry of interwoven humanity in all its glory and horror.… A fiercely original work filled with complex characters drawn with much knowing detail.”

—
The Oregonian
(Portland)

“Vivid, lucid, informing, and poetic.”

—
The Village Voice

“A triumph … McCann has undertaken an endeavor of brave scope, crammed with evocative detail and memorable characters … Impressive.”

—
Publishers Weekly
(starred review)

THIS SIDE OF BRIGHTNESS
. Copyright © 1998 by Colum McCann. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address Picador, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McCann, Colum.

    This side of brightness: a novel / Colum McCann.

    p. cm.

    ISBN 0-312-42197-4

PR6063.C335T48 1998

823'.914—dc21

97-29721
CIP

First published in the United States by Metropolitan Books

eISBN 9781466848702

First eBook edition: May 2013