Lies of Silence

Is it better to be a coward and live a happy life with the one you love? Or, is it better to do something heroic and risk your life and happiness? That’s one among several dilemmas Brian Moore grapples with in his book Lies of Silence.

Lies of Silence begins as a simple story about a Belfast hotel manager (Michael Dillon) who, unhappy with his marriage and his unfulfilled life in Belfast, decides to leave his wife for another woman and move to London. But, as he prepares to tell his wife about his decision, he is overwhelmed by unexpected and extraordinary circumstances.

Overnight, Dillon and his wife are taken hostage in their house by members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). And, while his wife is kept hostage in the house, next morning, he is ordered to drive his car with explosives to the hotel, park it there and disappear. Should Dillon follow the IRA’s directive at the cost of many lives and save his wife whom he no longer loves? Or, should he risk his wife’s life – and his own, in the long run – and save the world?

Irish author Brian Moore presents this moral dilemma in a taut and gripping novel against the backdrop of a politically – and economically – volatile Northern Ireland. Faced with this dilemma, we get the feeling that regardless of Dillon’s choices, the outcome of Lies of Silence is unlikely to be a happy one. But how that outcome is reached is a credit to Moore’s storytelling.