Irish Examiner view: Booker boost

An Irish author on the Booker longlist is a welcome lift.

'Apeirogan' tells the story of a real-life friendship between two men.They should be enemies as one is Israeli and the other Palestinian. Picture: Oded Balilty

News that Colum McCann’s 10th novel Apeirogon has made the Booker Prize longlist is a welcome lift and a timely reminder of the central role played by literature in recent months.

His book is based on the real-life friendship between two people who should be enemies  — an Israeli and a Palestinian — but they are united in grief as both lost daughters in the region’s conflict.