Lies of Silence

Lies of Silence is one of the very few thrillers ever to grace the Man Booker Prize shortlist. Set in Belfast during the Troubles, the book carries with it a subtle, slow-burning suspense which doubtlessly caught the judges' attention. Yet the novel succeeds also as a thoughtful reflection not just on the damage wrought by terrorism, but on personal responsibility, morality and the compromises of middle age.

The story begins with restless hotelier Michael Dillon plotting his escape from a loveless marriage and a hometown he despises. But before he can begin his new life in London with a younger, more stable woman, Dillon is drawn an IRA plot that involves a crushing moral dilemma.

Brian Moore had a particular flair for illuminating the show more psychology of people in crisis; indeed Dillon, his wife and his lover are amongst Moore's most heartrendingly well-drawn characters. Lies of Silence is a typically excellent effort by a seriously underrated novelist. show less

Toils and Troubles

Read by Steven Crossley 🎧
Length: `7 hours

I decided to read this short novel as I needed something with a plot.

After stumbling through several Booker long-listed novels, I needed to put my mind straight. So I decided to go back to an earlier decade’s Booker shortlist - to 1990’s thriller by Brian Moore.

Set in Belfast in the 1990s’ Moores novel tells a plot-driven story of adultery, terrorism and moral dilemma that may not be as thrilling to readers of the third decade of the 20th century.

The plot is solid, the prose god but not memorable, but good solid stuff. And though the characters were somewhat bland, the book did bring back memories for those of us old enough to remember, The Troubles in what is now show more Northern Ireland.

But thirty years and several wars later, ISIS, the Arab Spring, Sri Lanka, Palestine/Israel, Timorese Leste and so on and so on, The Troubles are indeed now history.

The book starts off well, but in the unsophisticated manner of the past, the real action takes place in the first few chapters. There’s not the build-up of tension. What tension is there lessens after the early chapters, as the jaded reader knows what will happen, and the rest of the novel slowly reveals how the initial actions resolve into a status quo.

There remains but one question. Which one of the three participants will die. Or will they all die. Or live.

You will need to read this fast burn to find out. show less

This 1990 novel by Moore is set in Belfast during the troubles. It has now been nearly 20 years since a form of peace was brokered in Northern Ireland. Perhaps people have forgotten this or if you are young enough you might be completely unaware of it somehow. "The Troubles" and terrorist attacks by the IRA seemed to be almost weekly news when I was growing up and through a good part of my adult life.

This is a rather powerful novel which presents the reader with a lot of food for thought. I thought about writing a rather extensive review/discussion of this until I took a look at the reviews on Goodreads and was rather floored by some of the hate directed at this novel, primarily by students who have read it for Lit classes in school. show more It reminded me just a little of when I was reading Graham Greene in a college English class and was kind of knocked out by some of his stories like Power and the Glory and The Destructors, and yet in class discussions some students absolutely detested him. Do these sorts of stories raise moral dilemmas that people cannot contemplate so they react in anger against the books? I don't know.

This book by Moore is written in a somewhat unusual style. This is a slow burner of a story. I feel sorry for people who cannot recognize there is some brilliance that created this book. Yeah I could rip a page or two out of this book myself in anger. That's how brilliant it is. show less

If a man no longer loves his wife (and perhaps never did) and has a choice between participating in the bombing of strangers or letting her be killed, what does he do?
This is the question that the book sets about answering. Set in Belfast, Lies of Silence deals with the moral dilemmas faced by Michael Dillon, a hotel manager who is drawn into the political conflict by the IRA. He must choose between helping the terrorists to bomb the hotel where he works or saving his wife, Moira, who is being held hostage by the gang to force him to comply with them. His decision has far reaching implications that play themselves out over the course of the novel, culminating in a horrific ending.
Nothing in the book is simple or clear cut, and the show more reader is not given the luxury of having a clear moral position to adopt. That is, except for the moral position of intolerance of violence and intolerance for the people who perpetrate it-- whatever the cost.
Moore's inference that our inability to deal decisively with terrorism is directly related to the contemporary spiritual vacuum was years ahead of its time, and is not going to lose its pertinence any time soon.
Moore was a first-rate writer in the Graham Greene mode who failed to engage the interest of the literati and is slowly fading away as a result. "Lies of Silence" is as good an example as any as to why he deserves better. show less

This was my final book from the 1990 Booker shortlist, which I have been reading as part of a project by The Mookse and the Gripes group on GoodReads. It is a gripping and horrific tale of a hotel manager caught up in an IRA plot.

Michael Dillon is the manager of a Belfast hotel which is due to host a loyalist firebrand who must be modelled on Ian Paisley. He is planning to leave his wife and go to England with a young Canadian, when he is visited at home by masked IRA terrorists who demand that he leaves his car (which they have armed with a bomb) outside the hotel, while they hold his wife hostage with the threat to kill her if he does not comply. The book follows the moral dilemmas that they face. It is not a long book, but it is very show more difficult to put down. show less

Was forced to read it for school, the writing was terrible, the characters were boring, and the pace was annoying. Didn't honestly care what happened at the end, and I was right- since the end was terrible.

Definitely won't be re-reading this one...

interesting regarding moral dilemas