SAY NOTHING

A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

by Patrick Radden Keefe

I first heard about Say Nothing on Clint Smith’s Instagram.  As the author of one of my all-time favorite works of non-fiction, How the Word is Passed (read review here), I took his recommendation to heart and am so glad. Breaking from my audiobook habit of choosing celebrity memoirs, this one was intense, but there’s nothing I love more than a gorgeous Irish accent, and the narrator does an incredible job bringing a very detailed story to life.

Say Nothing tells the story of the modern conflict in Northern Ireland, begining with the revelation that secretly taped interviews have been stolen from Boston College’s supposedly secure library. Keefe provides a highly personal account of ‘The Troubles’ by following the stories of two women. The first,  a Catholic mother of ten who is married to a Protestant, is abducted from her home and is never seen again. The second, a young girl carrying on her family’s legacy of resistance to English rule, is radicalized and joins the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) after experiencing a loyalist gang’s extreme violence. This second woman, Delores Price, goes on to become one of the most famous and prolific of the IRA’s operatives.

Keefe includes so much personal detail about his subjects that both fascinated and horrified me. Although I knew very little about The Troubles, he paints such a vivid and finely woven portrait of this complex conflict that each player feels heartbreakingly real. I also think the secretive nature of resistance made the whole story suspenseful in a way that kept me listening hour after hour. Say Nothing is gritty, nuanced and engrossing and I highly recommend it. (Lily)