Not many books are so hard to put down. I thought this was amazing, and it's the second book I've enjoyed by Patrick Radden Keefe, the other being Empire of Pain about the Sackler family dynasty. It deserves more of a post than I'm going to give it due to being busy and behind on these posts, but I'll just say that it was awesome. The book weaves together the lives of the people it covers so well, and they all come from different perspectives on The Troubles. Everyone is humanized, and I don't think that anyone is let off the hook. Radden Keefe makes you sympathize a lot with the Irish car bombers and assassins, but doesn't make them appear any less culpable for their crimes. It seems that way for a while in the book, but by the end, he's connected them to the murder of another "character" in the book, which should make the reader understand the human cost of the movement to unify Ireland.
Part of the reason I don't feel that into writing a big blog post is because I've already talked to so many people about this book. It blew my mind and is going to be one of the best books I've read all year I bet.
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