Finding Forward: How storytelling can unlock empathy and break down divisions

Apeirogon, a novel based on real events by award-winning Irish author Colum McCann, follows two men – one Palestinian and one Israeli – who came together as friends to promote peace following immeasurable personal tragedy. Each man experienced the loss of a daughter to the unending conflict between their warring nations.

By sharing stories like theirs in a way that connects deeply with readers, McCann says storytellers can help more people find ways out of their “lanes of certainty.”

“People have been pushed into these channels where they’re not allowed to move out of them,” McCann recently told nearly 700 attendees who came to hear him speak at the University of St. Thomas. “But I believe that deep down, when we talk to one another, we will find the uncertainty that actually liberates us.”

McCann shared his insights in a dialogue with St. Thomas president Rob Vischer as part of the university’s Finding Forward speaker series that explores controversial topics and points of friction. The goal of the program is to help illuminate ways to rise above the divisions evident in America and the world today – a goal McCann heartily endorses.

In a highly polarized, tension-filled world, the idea of reaching out to people on the other side of a political, religious, or social divide is too much for many people. To McCann, exploring how people can bridge divides is exactly what makes his work as a writer meaningful – and maybe even important.

“In these times of brokenness when we seek for some form of repair, I always think that storytelling is the thing that can bring us towards repair,” he said.

The Power of Storytelling, Listening and “Radical Empathy”

“I believe that the world is held together with our stories, and our stories meet one another,” McCann said. “Think about the people who are around you right now. If you could know the stories of those who are around you, the world becomes a little murkier, a little more difficult.”

It’s that friction, uncertainty and difficulty McCann seeks to elevate in his writing. In Apeirogon, the two fathers follow independent journeys toward feeling empathy for the “other side” in their conflict. When they meet each other, they find kindred spirits and realize that by telling their story they can help others see that peace is possible.

The storyteller’s job, McCann says, is to find and tell stories – fiction, nonfiction, or somewhere in between – that can illuminate those truths. But the listener (or in this case, the reader) also plays an important role.

“It’s not so much that we have to tell our own story, but we have to listen to the stories of others,” McCann stressed. “And that’s not sentimental. That’s actually really muscular and a really tough thing to do. How do you love your supposed enemy?”

The hope is that the listener can experience what Vischer referred to as “radical empathy” – that by inhabiting the stories of others they experience a jarring of beliefs strong enough to raise doubt in one’s own certainty.

McCann says he doesn’t aim to lay down a definitive set of facts, but instead to focus on illuminating truths which, ironically, can make us less certain about the world – and to McCann, that’s the starting point for finding a point of connection with those with whom we might otherwise disagree.

McCann embraces that ambiguity in his storytelling. In fact, while Apeirogon is about two real men, who really lost their daughters in the ways described, and who really do work for peace and reconciliation by sharing their stories, McCann wrote the book as fiction. Having the freedom as a storyteller to flesh out the character’s thoughts, tweak “facts” to immerse the reader, and weave additional threads into the narrative let McCann more effectively highlight the loss, grief, and ultimately the bridge the men form.

“We’re living in this sort of post-truth era when we don’t know what’s true and what’s not true, when facts are being manipulated and shipped off [to] become mercenary things,” he said. “My job is to put the reader in the pulse of the moment. So I made these tiny changes. You think of parables, and you think about what sort of truth the parables want to get to. It’s a human truth.”

Solace from Desolation

The events of the past year have been hard for McCann and the men featured in Apeirogon as conflict has flared once again.

In his own Irish homeland, he has seen the impact of optimism. “We have now [had] 27 years of peace in Ireland after 800 years of desolation. Yes, the peace is shaky in certain places. But it’s there, and so without being naïve … peace is inevitable. It’s how we get there and who’s going to bring us there.”

“We don’t need to love each other. In fact, we don’t even need to like each other, though we hope that we could. But we absolutely must, we must understand one another.” Quoting a poem, McCann concluded, “‘Is there any hope that this desolation can bring us solace?’ And I would say, I think there is.”

Finding Forward’s next event will be held on October 23rd

Join dynamic faith leader and civil servant Reverend Tony Lowden, as he reflects on the importance of finding common ground during this time of political and ideological division in the United States. As the former pastor of President Jimmy Carter at Maranatha Baptist Church and Executive Director of the Federal Interagency Council on Crime Prevention and Improving Reentry under the Trump administration, Reverend Lowden has provided much needed hope and leadership across the political divide.