NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award From the author of the New York Times bestseller Empire of Pain—a stunning, intricate narrative about a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating repercussionsA New York Times Top Ten Book of the Year • Long Listed for the National Book Award • Winner of the Orwell Prize • TIME Magazine’s Best Nonfiction … Award • Winner of the Orwell Prize • TIME Magazine’s Best Nonfiction Book of the Year • Best Book of the Decade by EW and LitHub
“Masked intruders dragged Jean McConville, a 38-year-old widow and mother of 10, from her Belfast home in 1972. In this meticulously reported book—as finely paced as a novel—Keefe uses McConville’s murder as a prism to tell the history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Interviewing people on both sides of the conflict, he transforms the tragic damage and waste of the era into a searing, utterly gripping saga.” —New York Times Book Review
Jean McConville’s abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the I.R.A. was responsible. But in a climate of fear and paranoia, no one would speak of it. In 2003, five years after an accord brought an uneasy peace to Northern Ireland, a set of human bones was discovered on a beach. McConville’s children knew it was their mother when they were told a blue safety pin was attached to the dress–with so many kids, she had always kept it handy for diapers or ripped clothes.
Patrick Radden Keefe’s mesmerizing book on the bitter conflict in Northern Ireland and its aftermath uses the McConville case as a starting point for the tale of a society wracked by a violent guerrilla war, a war whose consequences have never been reckoned with. The brutal violence seared not only people like the McConville children, but also I.R.A. members embittered by a peace that fell far short of the goal of a united Ireland, and left them wondering whether the killings they committed were not justified acts of war, but simple murders.
From radical and impetuous I.R.A. terrorists such as Dolours Price, who, when she was barely out of her teens, was already planting bombs in London and targeting informers for execution, to the ferocious I.R.A. mastermind known as The Dark, to the spy games and dirty schemes of the British Army, to Gerry Adams, who negotiated the peace but betrayed his hardcore comrades by denying his I.R.A. past–Say Nothing conjures a world of passion, betrayal, vengeance, and anguish.
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Patrick Radden Keefe’s gripping account of the Troubles is equal parts true-crime, history, and tragedy. Keefe’s incisive reporting reveals the hidden costs of the Troubles, illuminating both the terrible toll of the conflict, and how it continues to reverberate today. A must read.
Patrick Radden Keefe uses the old Irish phrase, ‘Whatever you say, say nothing,’ to suggest and to say just about everything. Keefe’s great accomplishment is to capture the tragedy of the Troubles on a human scale. By tracing the intersecting lives of a handful of unforgettable characters, he has created a deeply honest and intimate portrait of a society still haunted by its own violent past. Say Nothing is a bracing, empathetic, heartrending work of storytelling.
A brilliant look at the modern-day Troubles in Ireland. The triple agents, extreme factionalism, bombs, and disappearances will break your heart… but also want to make you raise a glass to the hardy Irish people.
This was a knockout of a book, a non-fiction with enough elements of a mystery novel that I kept reading well past bedtime.
I knew very little about the Irish Troubles, and that complicated history, full of betrayals and double agents and factions, could have been frustratingly bewildering. What I appreciated was the way Keefe organized the book around a central crime–the abduction and murder by the IRA of a supposed “informer” named Jean McConville–that involved a variety of actors, for Keefe then threaded their stories/biographies along the main one. Managing multiple subplots is not easy to do, but this was done deftly, in a way that made the material accessible. I also appreciated the historical context Keefe sketches … dating all the way back to the Norman raiders of the 12thC and, in the 16thC, Henry VIII and the Catholic/Protestant divide. I also appreciated the quality of the writing, which was spare and elegant and forthright.
This book was one selected by the Arizona Literary Society, which is how found it; it was also chosen as one of the 10 best books of 2019 by the New York Times Book Review. Highly recommend for anyone who likes readable, deeply researched history.
Winston Churchill said, “We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English.”
That sums up the attitude of both the English and the Irish. The Irish chafed under English control for centuries. In the late 1960’s and early 70’s the Irish Republican Army (IRA) rose once again to protest the division of the island. (Six counties are in predominately protestant Northern Ireland, and the rest are in heavily catholic Republic of Ireland.) The IRA demanded unification and employed violence to meet their goal. It was call “The Troubles.”
Ten percent of the population of Belfast fled the city as murder, kidnap and torture became the hallmarks of The Troubles. Cranking up the heat, the IRA decided to export their terror and bomb London. Afterwards, they cowardly claimed they intended no harm. What was their intention when they planned to simultaneously detonate four car bombs on bustling city streets?
The English dispatched to Northern Ireland to put down the surly Irish are hardly without blame in this street fight. Their code of conduct is strangely suspended during The Troubles. This lack of civility was brought to Margaret Thatcher’s attention, and the Prime Minister responded that she didn’t wish to know the details. She feared for her own life.
Keefe’s meticulously researched book follows the lives of those who spearheaded the IRA movement. This creates the feel and pace of fiction. It opens with the kidnapping of a widow, Jean McConville, leaving her young children to fend for themselves. She is never seen again. It closes with her funeral nearly 40 years later as the Irish try to find the “disappeared.” Along the way you follow Dolours Price, the attractive and mesmerizing young woman behind the London bombs, her hunger strike in a London jail that created a publicity nightmare for the English, and her eventual renunciation of her past. But it is her sister, Marian who merits closer scrutiny. And let’s not forget Gerry Adams, the head of the peaceful Sinn Fein party who claims never to have been associated with the IRA. Credible sources, however, put him at the top of that organization during its most violent and murderous days. It gets even more bizarre; for the English have a snitch, an inside man in the IRA, who feeds them information for years. That man—and one cannot imagine a better cover—is the IRA’s chief executioner. On what moral ground can that be defended? Keefe, to his credit, does not attempt to answer the questions.
How did some of the facts emerge? Rogue history professors at Boston College recorded an oral history of willing participants, on the stipulation that the recordings would not be released until their death. Turned out a few of these Irish fighters weren’t blessed with longevity. Once of the police learned of the recordings, court orders soon followed.
Keefe’s enthralling history will be one of the better books you read this year. One cannot help but wonder, will Brexit agitate calm waters?
This might be my favorite audiobook ever. Say Nothing is the story of Jean McConnville, a mother of ten who disappeared during The Troubles. But it’s so much more than just that story. Patrick O’Radden weaves in the story of Northern Ireland’s modern history and several of the iconic figures of that time. He delves into the characters of the McConnville children, the Price sisters, Brandon Hughes, Gerry Adams, and so many others.
The audiobook is narrated by Matthew Blaney, who has the perfect voice and accent to tell this tale. It’s the sort of book that keeps you in your car to listen for just a few more minutes after you reach your destination. At the very end of the audio version, I learned that there are endnotes that were not part of the audio production, so now I have to buy the book to read more about this amazing story. What a brilliant tale about a tragic time in recent history. TI could have listened to another dozen hours of this.
A book about the history of violence in Northern Ireland that reads like an international thriller complete with a cast of Hollywood stars and real-life politicians who may or may not be involved in an unsolved murder.
So yeah, I’m jumping on the “Say Nothing” bandwagon… I can’t help it. I’ve read a lot of the history of Northern Ireland—my grandfather’s people are from there—but it took New Yorker staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe to really make it come alive, with characters who could have stepped out of the pages of a fictional thriller. He tells history through the eyes of the people who lived it, generally the purview of the historical novelist; but everything here is true.
The mystery he’s uncovering is that of Jean McConville, a widowed mother of 10 (a fact that he might have beleaguers perhaps a bit much, as though her life were worth more because of the number of her offspring), abducted from her Belfast home by the IRA in 1972.
Keefe’s genius is in making this personal story the story of all civil rights movements, from the United States to South Africa. In its particulars it’s illustrated by the life of Dolours Price, an IRA soldier who joined in her teens and rose through the ranks to become something of a cult personality within the movement.
Keefe makes a reasonable case that the murder happened at the behest of Gerry Adams (who has consistently denied even being part of the IRA) who became involved as a teenager and went on to become a central figure in the hierarchy.
Ultimately it’s a sad story, the story of a revolution that didn’t happen, the story of a war with no winning sides. As Brexit and its consequences loom, it’s good to have a history to understand: there may be hard times ahead, and it’s difficult to believe that any of these wounds have healed.
Meticulously reported, exquisitely written, and grippingly told, Say Nothing is a work of revelation. Keefe not only peels back, layer by layer, the truth behind one of the most important and mysterious crimes of a terrible conflict; he also excavates the history of the Troubles, and illuminates its repercussions to this day.
If you want a true crime meets political intrigue meets guerrilla war, this one is for you. Fantastic deep dive into what drives a century-long conflict through an investigation of one murdered mother.
If you want a good understanding of the “Irish Troubles,” read this book
This book was enjoyable to read, having the reader wanting to to finish in one sitting. The author informed the reader of the tragic situation going on in Ireland at that time. It is very sad what happened to Mrs. McConville. I would highly recommend reading this book.
As a person who grew up in the 60’s and 70’s hearing about the IRA and bombing in England and Ireland I found this to be very informative-I usually read a book fairly quickly but this one made me take my time and reread as I progressed to check info I had read- the historical people and places were very real as I read- for some I am sure it would be a difficult read especially if they or family and friends lived through it but for me an outsider it was an amazing read
Breathtakingly haunting and good.
Patrick Radden Keefe tells the story of the conflict in Northern Ireland between the Irish nationalists, the Catholics, and the unionists, the Protestants, in a time described as The Troubles.
This book is very well researched, it is harrowing and it focuses largely on the human cost.
I believed myself to be relatively well-informed on this topic before I read this book. I wasn’t.
I cannot recommend enough!
Thank you to Doubleday, Patrick Radden Keefe and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Excellent read about the history of IRA!
This well-written and riveting book is a great aid to learning more about the complicated politics and the human toll of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, a region much more on the front burner of awareness than it has been since the Good Friday accord (thanks for nothing, Brexit!).
It’s well-documented and factual but reads like a thriller, in the very best way.
Beautifully written and extensively researched by Patrick Keefe. The trigger is the kidnapping of a widow with 10 children in Belfast in 1972, and follows numerous characters, family members, politicians, clergy, and law enforcement for more than 30 years to discover the truth about her murder. All events are set in context and provide deep insight into the Troubles in a very human way. All the characters are treated with dignity regardless of their actions.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.
“From award-winning New Yorker staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe, a stunning, intricate narrative about a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating repercussions.” That description is very accurate, but is just the tip of the iceberg. The story begins in December of 1972, when 38-year old Jean McConville, mother to 10 children, was dragged from her Belfast home by masked intruders and was never to be seen again. Who was responsible, and why? It would take 30 years before her bones were found, but why it happened is never explained to my satisfaction.
As a teenager in the 70’s, the evening news was filled with the horrors of war. My personal focus was more on Viet Nam, and the bombs and explosions in Ireland took second place. I must admit I had only a basic knowledge of The Troubles. The author details the history of the conflicts in Ireland, the birth of the IRA and the brutality that took place. He has done an excellent job of filling in the history of the conflict, as well as analyzing the masterminds behind the terror and the “volunteers” who carried out the acts.
This book also left me so profoundly sad. And angry. And mystified. Have we learned nothing? Will we ever learn to live in peace with each other? How do you reconcile your actions with your religion? How do people live with themselves after doing such unspeakable things? Even if you weren’t part of the abductions, bombings or just plain hatred being spewed, how do you look yourself in the mirror each morning after you have left your neighbor’s 10 young children fend for themselves after their mother’s disappearance? I guess it weighs pretty heavily, as some of the IRA volunteers participated in Boston College’s interviews of IRA members, with the contents to be released after their deaths, as a catharsis and unburdening of their souls. Others pretended they were never members.
I highly recommend this book. It appears to be very well-researched, and is an insightful and informative look into a very troubling time in Ireland’s history. It is also a book that will challenge you to look at the world around us. We haven’t learned a thing.
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A wonderful account of the period in N. Ireland known as “the troubles.” Very readable non-fiction that kept me hooked. I felt the author did a great job of telling the story and depicting the people involves in the political troubles. Excellent research into a difficult time.
this is the first book about the “Troubles” of Northern Ireland I ‘ve ever read. It was excellent