A really insightful, nuanced look at the causes of 'the Troubles' in the north of Ireland and the effects of the conflict. Interesting to learn about all of the players in the conflict, the impact on people's lives and the factors that influenced public opinion.

Towards the end of the book, the detail became excruciating. An account of every phone call made and an in-depth, sentence-by-sentence analysis of every government/paramilitary communiqué made the last two chapters fairly tedious.

Would recommend to anyone with a deep interest in politics, but the level of detail, as well as Coogan's writing style, makes it hard going at times.

I didn't actually finish this book. It was a tough read, not only because of the heavy topic, but it was written more like a scholarly text (so I had to look up every other word and abbreviation). Maybe at some point I'll finish this book.