★ 歐巴馬推薦書單
"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
"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.
（文字整理/文謙益）
“一九七二年，蒙面者強行將三十八歲的寡婦，也是十個孩子的母親吉恩•麥康維爾從她位於貝爾法斯特的家中強行拖走。在這本精心報導的書中--情節緊湊宛如小說--基夫用麥康維爾的謀殺案作為透視鏡來講述「北愛爾蘭問題」的歷史。他採訪了發生衝突的兩造，將那個時代的悲慘破壞和虛耗寫成了一則感情熾熱、扣人心弦的傳奇。--《紐約時報書評》
吉恩•麥康維爾遭綁架一案被視為「北愛爾蘭問題」血腥衝突中最惡名昭彰的事件之一。當地人都知道愛爾蘭共和軍是幕後主謀。但籠罩在恐懼和猜疑的氛圍下，沒有人敢為正義直言。二零零三年，在北愛爾蘭簽下得來不易的和平協議的五年後，人們在海灘上發現了一堆人骨。麥康維爾家的孩子知道那是他們的母親，因為據說裙子上別著一枚藍色的安全別針--因為孩子眾多，她總是隨身帶著它，用來繫上尿布或破衣服。
派崔克•拉登•基夫關於北愛爾蘭激烈衝突及其後續影響的精彩大作以麥康維爾案為起點，描寫一個被暴力游擊戰摧毀的社會，這場戰爭的影響從未受到重視。殘酷的暴力不僅讓像麥康維爾的孩子們受創，也讓愛爾蘭共和軍感到憤怒。成員們對愛爾蘭尚未達到統一感到痛苦和不平，他們更因此懷疑他們犯下的殺戮可能不是正當的戰爭行為，而是單純的謀殺。
本書內容從來自激進和浮躁的愛爾蘭共和軍像桃樂絲•普萊斯這樣的恐怖分子，她在十幾歲時就已經在倫敦安放炸彈，並以告密者為目標執行死刑，到被稱為“黑人”的首腦所領導的兇殘愛爾蘭共和軍，到英軍的間諜遊戲和下流陰謀，到傑瑞•亞當斯，他透過談判達成和平協議，卻否認他在愛爾蘭共和軍的過往，背叛了他的忠誠戰友。《什麼都別說》描繪了一個充滿激情、背叛、復仇和痛苦的世界。
（文字整理/文謙益）