Apeirogon

The very structure of the book, which should stand out in comparison to more formally structured novels, is aimed at showing the strange connections and interconnection of things, people, history, etc. The odd structure—the way the novel uses sections instead of chapters, how those sections vary in length, and how they vary in content—allows McCann to interject a number of various ideas, facts, histories, and trajectories, making them intertwine into a rich picture of the way both the regions’ histories and the histories of the two main characters are bound up in the history of the world. This vast network of nature, violence, history, and personal lives form the interconnection of things that is at the heart of this book.

Even before the reader understands the structure, the title should denote this theme, particularly because it has no narrative relation to the story of Bassam and Rami. An apeirogon is an infinitely sided object. This is how McCann views this world and the odd ways people connect. For example, the fact that Rami and Bassam, two people on opposite sides of a historical struggle, came together through similar tragedies—the killing of their respective daughters—at the hands of the other’s countrymen.