Say Nothing (book)

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, it 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. The book also details the efforts of the Belfast Project to research and investigate the events of the conflict. Keefe began researching and writing the book after reading an obituary for Dolours Price in 2013.^[2]

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]

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

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

According to Book Marks, the book received "rave" reviews based on twenty-two critic reviews, with 11 being "rave" and 11 being "positive".^[8] In Books in the Media, a site that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received an average rating of 4.54 out of 5 from the site which was based on four critic reviews.^[9] In the May/June 2019 issue of Bookmarks, a magazine that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received an average rating of 4 out of 5 based on critic reviews with a critical summary saying, "All in all, Say Nothing is a "riveting account" (Minneapolis Star Tribune) sure to interest amateur historians".^[10][11]

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."^[12]

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."^[13] 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."^[13]

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."^[14]

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."^[15]

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."^[16]

The book was named one of the top ten books of 2019 by both The New York Times Book Review^[17] and The Washington Post.^[18] It won the 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction.^[19] In 2024, the New York Times named Say Nothing the 19th best book of the 21st century.^[20]

In May 2019, Irish journalist Ed Moloney, who was the director of the Belfast Project, published a piece in CounterPunch in which he alleged several inaccuracies in Keefe's book. He also criticised Keefe's citation style: "The writing thus flows uninterrupted, appearing to the untutored reader – or reviewer – as being the work of the author when it may not be. It takes hard work and determination to discover how much of this book is truly original reporting and how much is taken from other people's work. A 'more commercial narrative' indeed."^[21]

In February 2024, FX announced that they would be adapting the novel into a limited series.^[22] The series premiered on 14 November 2024.^[23]