Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
Cover of first edition
AuthorPatrick Radden Keefe
Audio read byMatthew Blaney[1]
Cover artistStefano Archetti (photo)
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
SubjectThe Troubles
PublisherWilliam Collins
Publication date
November 1, 2018
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages513
Awards2019 Orwell Prize for Political Writing
ISBN9780008159252
OCLC1063745342
941.670824092
LC ClassDA995.B5 K44 2018

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland is a 2018 book by writer and journalist Patrick Radden Keefe. It focuses on the Troubles in Northern Ireland. It spent six weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list and received widespread critical acclaim.

Summary

Say Nothing's subject is The Troubles in Northern Ireland, with the 1972 abduction and murder of Jean McConville as a central focus. The book describes the lives of Dolours Price, Brendan Hughes, Gerry Adams, and Jean McConville's children. Through these figures, the book offers a history of the Troubles as a whole: the civil rights movement and the turn to violence at the end of the 1960s, the Provisional IRA's bombing campaign, the 1981 hunger strike, the peace process and the opposition it faced within the republican movement, and the post-conflict struggle to understand crimes like McConville's murder. Keefe began researching and writing the book after reading the obituary for Dolours Price in 2013.[2]

Title

The book's title is taken from the poem "Whatever You Say, Say Nothing" by Irish Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney from his collection North (1975).[2]

Publication

Say Nothing was first published by the William Collins imprint of HarperCollins on November 1, 2018. It was later published in the US by Doubleday on February 26, 2019.[3]

The book debuted at number seven on The New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction best-sellers list on March 17, 2019.[4] It spent six weeks on the list.[5] Say Nothing also debuted at number five on The New York Times Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction best-sellers list on March 17, 2019.[6] It spent six weeks on the list.[7]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Book Marks, which assigns individual ratings to book reviews from mainstream literary critics, the book received a cumulative "rave" rating based on 22 reviews: 11 "rave" reviews and 11 "positive" reviews.[8] Jennifer Szalai of The New York Times wrote, "Keefe's narrative is an architectural feat, expertly constructed out of complex and contentious material, arranged and balanced just so."[9]

Maureen Corrigan of NPR enthusiastically wrote, "Keefe is a storyteller who captures the complexities of a historical moment by digging deep into the lives of people on all sides of the conflict."[10] Corrigan concludes, "At the end of his panoramic book, which gathers together history, politics and biography, Keefe tightens the focus back to the mystery of McConville's abduction and murder. And, as in the most ingenious crime stories, Keefe unveils a revelation — lying, so to speak, in plain sight — that only further complicates the moral dimensions of his tale."[10]

Devlin Barrett of The Washington Post described how Say Nothing is "a cautionary tale, [that] speaks volumes — about the zealotry of youth, the long-term consequences of violence and the politics of forgetting."[11]

The Economist noted, "The discerning skill with which Mr. Radden Keefe gets inside these characters' minds may unsettle some readers, but it is also his book's strength. He shows how people who in peacetime might just have been strong-willed or colourful types came to condone or perpetrate the unspeakable."[12]

Stephen Phillips of The Los Angeles Times praised the book saying, "'Say Nothing' powerfully documents a society benumbed by trauma attempting to reckon with the abyss that engulfed it."[13]

The book was named one of the top ten books of 2019 by both the New York Times Book Review[14] and the Washington Post.[15] It won the 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction.[16]

Television adaptation

Disney began filming a 10 part TV adaptation of the book in mid-2023.[17]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe". Penguin Random House.
  2. 1 2 Kroll, Andy (26 February 2019). "Terrorism, Torture and 3,600 Lives Lost: Revisiting 'the Troubles' in Northern Ireland". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  3. ↑ "Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  4. ↑ "Hardcover Nonfiction Books – Best Sellers". The New York Times. 17 March 2019.
  5. ↑ "Hardcover Nonfiction Books – Best Sellers". The New York Times. 21 April 2019.
  6. ↑ "Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction – Best Sellers". The New York Times. 17 March 2019.
  7. ↑ "Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction – Best Sellers". The New York Times. 21 April 2019.
  8. ↑ "Book Marks reviews of Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe". Book Marks. Literary Hub. Retrieved 18 December 2023.
  9. ↑ Szalai, Jennifer (20 February 2019). "'Say Nothing' Unearths Buried Secrets in Northern Ireland". The New York Times.
  10. 1 2 "'Say Nothing': Murder, Memory And A Masterful History Of The Troubles". NPR. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  11. ↑ Barrett, Devlin (8 May 2019). "Tale of a woman who died and a woman who killed in the Northern Ireland conflict". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 25 March 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  12. ↑ "A searing reflection on the Troubles and their aftermath". The Economist. 12 January 2019. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  13. ↑ Phillips, Stephen (6 March 2019). "Review: 'Say Nothing' reexamines a mother's murder in Northern Ireland's most violent years". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  14. ↑ "The 10 Best Books of 2019". The New York Times. 22 November 2019. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
  15. ↑ "Best Books of 2019". The Washington Post. 21 November 2019. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
  16. ↑ Beth Parker (12 March 2020). "Announcing the 2019 Award Winners". bookcritics.org. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  17. ↑ John Breslin (18 July 2023). "Disney begins filming 10-part drama on Jean McConville's abduction and murder". The Irish News.
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