Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
TLDR: “Incredible history. So, so hard to put down.”
This is an absolutely compelling history of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. It’s fairly comprehensive, but it uses a single murder as a narrative hook. Jean McConville, a widow with 10 children, was taken from her house one evening and “disappeared” – she was just never seen or heard from again.
In the process of describing and investigating this crime, this author covers the entire history of the conflict between the U.K. and the Irish Republicans. It’s a long, sordid tale where one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, and normal people did some horrible things in the name of what they felt was justifiable liberation.
He concentrates on a few people in particular: Delours Price, Brendan Hughs, and Gerry Adams. They all played a role in both the larger struggle, and the smaller story of Jean McConville. All throughout the story sits an oral history project conducted in the name of truth and reconciliation, the recordings of which are stored in the United States and might hold the evidence to find who killed Jean.
I had a very hard time putting the book down. It’s written in a straightforward, fast-paced style, and the author perfectly blends the acute story of a single murder into the larger framework of the historical conflict.
Absolutely fantastic book.
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