Colum McCann creates a mesmerizing evocation of the gulf between memory and imational, love and loss, past and present, in this arresting novel. With unreliable memories and scraps of photographs as his only clues, Conor Lyons follows the tracks of his father--a rootless photographer--as he moved from war-torn Spain to the barren plains of Mexico--where he met Conor's mother--and finally back to Ireland for the story's heartrending climax.

Colum McCann creates in Songdogs a mesmerizing evocation of the gulf between memory and imagination, love and loss, past and present.

With unreliable memories and scraps of photographs as his only clues, Conor Lyons follows in the tracks of his father, a rootless photographer, as he moved from war-torn Spain, to the barren plains of Mexico, where he met and married Conor's mother, to the American West, and finally back to Ireland, where the marriage and the story reach their heartrending climax. The narratives of Conor's quest and his parents' lives twine and untwine to astonishing effect.