American Mother

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents American Mother by Colum McCann with Diane Foley, read by Colum McCann, Jamie Lee Curtis and Kristen Rock.

An extraordinary story of grace, forgiveness and moral courage' Patrick Radden Keefe
A 2024 HIGHLIGHT IN THE OBSERVER, GUARDIAN AND IRISH TIMES
AN IMMEDIATE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

The English language has no specific word for the parent that has lost a child. There exist words for orphan, widow and widower, but there is no word that captures and conveys this tragic type of loss.

It has been eleven years since Diane Foley’s son, the American journalist James Foley, was kidnapped in northern Syria, and nearly ten since that day in August 2014 when she would learn that he had been murdered by ISIS in a public beheading that would ricochet in video around the world. A whole decade. Time rushes past. And yet, for Diane, that moment is unending.

In American Mother, legendary author Colum McCann tells Diane’s story as she recalls the months of his captivity, the efforts made to bring him home and the days following his death, in which Diane came face to face with one of the men responsible for her son’s kidnapping and torture. A testament to the power of radical empathy and moral courage, American Mother takes us inside one woman’s extraordinary journey to find connection in a world torn asunder, and to fight for others as a way to keep her son’s memory alive.

Critics Review

Diane Foley’s faith and empathy ... is nothing short of miraculous. And when, finally, Kotey shakes her hand, something an Isis man would never usually do, he seems to be quite as in awe of her courage as any reader will be
Sunday Times
This is an extraordinary story of grace, forgiveness and moral courage. Bookended by Diane Foley's meetings with her son's killer, American Mother plunges us into the heart of darkness and then, somehow, on the far end, discovers unexpected light and hope. Diane Foley's voice, as captured by Colum McCann, is one of the most compelling in recent literary memory. An honest, searing, heartbreaking book
Patrick Radden Keefe
Profoundly moving … As much about a search for forgiveness - and its limits - as a description of horror, love and spiritual endurance … A woman of remarkable courage and emotional intellect who describes her profound religious belief with humility … McCann's writing here is excoriating in its detail … I cannot recall ever crying so much while reading a book
New Statesman
Powerful and devastating … reading this book is to be side by side with Diane
Daily Mail
As an explanation of grief American Mother is elegant . . . What marks it out is how Diane Foley became an unlikely political activist . . . Graceful and compassionate
Irish Independent
This is a book of agony, where the greatest of all may be Diane Foley’s ignorance of what really happened to her son . . . Remarkable, stirring
Irish Times
She has put her extraordinarily painful experiences into a powerful new book simply but beautifully titled American Mother
i news
Story of grace and possible redemption … It is impossible to read American Mother without remembering McCann’s magnificent seventh 2020 novel Apeirogon … Excellent
Irish Examiner
One of the most extraordinary stories that I have read in years
Sting
Having lived through every mother’s worst nightmare and somehow survived, Diane Foley leads with her heart in her fierce advocacy for Americans captured abroad. Now, in this book, she helps us understand how that is possible by inviting us to walk with her through some of the hardest moments of her life, courageously facing the unthinkable, sharing a candour that takes your breath away, and a deep hope that generations to come will never have to face what she did
Judy Woodruff
The acclaimed novelist Colum McCann makes his nonfiction debut with American Mother, a book written with Diane Foley, whose son, the journalist James Foley, was murdered by Islamic State in 2014
Observer, Nonfiction to look out for in 2024
Working with Irish novelist McCann, Diane Foley, mother of the murdered journalist James Foley, recounts the desperate story of his capture in Syria in 2014,efforts to secure his release, his public execution and its aftermath
Guardian, Books to Look Out for in 2024
The story of the mother of the journalist James Foley, who was kidnapped in Syria and murdered by the Islamic State in a public beheading a decade ago. Told in collaboration with one of Ireland’s most acclaimed novelists (Apeirogon, Let The Great World Spin), this book is testament to the power of radical empathy and moral courage
Irish Times, Nonfiction Books to Look Out for in 2024
Powerful and devastating … reading this book is to be side by side with Diane
Daily Mail, Book of the Week
A searing, mournful and tragic story, one that is as compelling as it is sad … The book is, at times, terribly difficult to read, but it needs to be. As a testament to Diane Foley’s personal struggle and determination it is always fascinating, as is the depiction of the awful emptiness she experienced on hearing of her son’s death. As a book, it is incredibly moving, and as a journalistic exercise it is gold standard
Evening Standard
She was (and is) full of grace, in all of that beautiful word’s senses – and it strikes me now that this was what brought the novelist Colum McCann to want to write about her. Can such a quality be adequately articulated? Can it ever be put into (non-embarrassing) words? And if so, how might those words work on an open-hearted reader? … Reading American Mother is nothing but humbling: that we should all be so decent and so wise, so generous of heart
Guardian, Book of the Week

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