Wounds

A family story of blood and memory and the haunting power of the past.
2018 WINNER OF THE CHRISTOPHER EWART-BIGGS MEMORIAL PRIZE2017 WINNER OF THE NON-FICTION IRISH BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDA SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

Reviews

‘Few books this year have been as moving Keane’s account of his family’s experience during the conflicts that tore Ireland apart… Keane writes with an impeccable eye for details and a profound sensitivity to human suffering’ Books of the Year, Sunday Times, Dominic Sandrook
‘While Keane is acutely aware of the allure and the danger of myth, he also has an objective reporter’s eye for the human tragedies of those caught up in the heightening viciousness … Ireland has not always borne in mind all its dead. To its great credit, this deeply absorbing book does’ The Times
‘Couldn’t put down the brilliant, moving, eye-opening book Wounds by Fergal Keane. You don’t need interest in Irish history to be swept away by characters who leap off page, facing impossible choices in the struggle for dignity and independence’ Samantha Power, author of A Problem from Hell
‘A fine and troubling book … Keane is a gifted writer whose scarifying experiences in war zones have not coarsened his humanity. Nor does his emotional reaction to terrible cruelty lessen his determination to tell the truth. He admits here to just one bias: “a loathing of war and of all who celebrate the killing of their fellow men and women”. He has unsparingly used his family history to show how many of us, in certain circumstances, might be killers and worse. Even in our own backyards’ Sunday Times