Healing grief and remaining optimistic in darkest times

Colum McCann says 'American Mother' is a book about journalism and journalists and combat journalism — people who have gone to the very edge

American journalist James Foley, a freelance contributor for GlobalPost, in Benghazi, Libya. In a horrifying act of revenge for US airstrikes in northern Iraq, militants with the Islamic State extremist group have beheaded Foley. File picture: GlobalPost/AP

• American Mother
• Colum McCann and Diane Foley
• Bloomsbury, pb €15.99/ hb €31.99