Thalia Book Club: Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin & Colm Toibin's Brooklyn

The Irish writers and good friends discuss their newest novels, each of which is set in New York City and was chosen by Amazon as one of the Top 4 Books of 2009, with each other and the audience. Michael Cerveris performs excerpts from both authors.

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Performance playlist:

Reading
Michael Cerveris

Conversation
Colum McCann and Colm Tóibín with Isaiah Sheffer

A Discussion with the Audience

Michael Cerveris is an actor, composer, and musician, perhaps best known for his roles in such Broadway musicals as Titanic, LoveMusik, Road Show, Sweeney Todd, and Assassins, for which he won a Tony Award. He has also appeared in revivals of King Lear, Cymbaline, and Hedda Gabler. Most recently, he originated the role of Dr. Givings in In The Next Room or the vibrator play by Sarah Ruhl. Currently, Mr. Cerveris can be seen in the recurring role of The Observer in Fox’s science fiction drama Fringe.

Colum McCann is the author of the novels Zoli, Dancer, This Side of Brightness, Songdogs, and Let the Great World Spin, winner of the 2009 National Book Award for Fiction; as well as two short story collections. His fiction has been published in thirty languages. He has been a finalist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and was the inaugural winner of the Ireland Fund of Monaco Literary Award in Memory of Princess Grace. McCann has been named one of Esquire’s “Best and Brightest,” and his short film Everything in This Country Must was nominated for an Oscar in 2005. A contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Paris Review, Mr. McCann teaches in the Hunter College MFA Creative Writing Program. He lives in New York City with his wife and three children.

Isaiah Sheffer is a founder and the artistic director of Symphony Space, as well as host and director of Selected Shorts live at Symphony Space, on tour and on public radio nationwide. He is also a co-creator of The Thalia Follies Political Cabaret.

Colm Tóibín is the author of the novels The South; Heather Blazing, winner of the 1993 Encore Award; The Story of Night; The Blackwater Lightship, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; The Master, winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Stonewall Literary Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in fiction; and most recently, Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Novel Award and longlisted for the Booker Prize. His non-fiction work includes Bad Blood: A Walk Along the Irish Border, Love in a Dark Time: Gay Lives from Wilde to Almodóvar, and Lady Gregory’s Toothbrush, among others. Mr. Tóibín is also a journalist and literary critic, and served as the editor of the Irish news magazine Magill from 1982 to 1985. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from The University of Ulster. He lives in Dublin and is a visiting professor at Princeton University.