Twist by Colum McCann

Here is the thing about this author. He is a very good writer, I enjoy the story mostly because the story teller is talented, but mostly I just do not care for the characters. The story starts off straight forward enough, but there is truth in advertising--the title lets you know that it is going to get messy. Anthony Fennell, an Irish writer down on his luck, gets an assignment from an online journal to write a piece on the undersea cables that carry the world’s data and the repair teams that patrol the oceans, fixing ruptures. He agrees to this because he has a bit of writer's block and he has an image of cruise ship rather than working ship and thinks he is going to get some time to write his own stuff as well. Fennell’s editor sends him to Cape Town, where he is to sign on with a repair ship and meet a man named Conway, who is in charge of operations. Conway is, and will remain an enigma: immediate and engaging at first, later aloof and noncommittal — and capable, as we’ll see, of extraordinary actions. Though they’ve just met, he straightaway asks Fennell to come meet his partner, Zanele, a South African-born stage actress. The three of them weave in and out of each other's stories throughout the book, all with an undercurrent of moving against the grain of society. It is a story well told.