Synopsis
From the award-winning author comes a gripping account of one of the most scandalous murders in modern Irish history, at once a propulsive work of true crime and an act of literary subversion.
Malcolm Macarthur was a well-known Dublin socialite and heir. Suave and urbane, he passed his days mingling with artists and aristocrats, reading philosophy, living a life of the mind. But by 1982, his inheritance had dwindled to almost nothing, a desperate threat to his lifestyle. Macarthur hastily conceived a plan: He would commit bank robbery, of the kind that had become frightfully common in Dublin at the time. But his plan spun swiftly out of control, and he needlessly killed two innocent people. The ensuing manhunt, arrest, and conviction amounted to one of the most infamous political scandals in modern Irish history, contributing to the eventual collapse of a government.
Winner of the Wellcome and Rooney Prizes, Mark O’Connell spent countless hours in conversation with Macarthur—interviews that veered from confession to evasion. Through their tense exchanges and O’Connell’s independent reporting, a pair of narratives unspools: a riveting account of Macarthur’s crimes and a study of the hazy line between truth and invention. We come to see not only the enormity of the murders but the damage that’s inflicted when a life is rendered into story.
At once propulsive and searching, A Thread of Violence is a hard look at a brutal act, its subterranean origins, and the long shadow it casts. It offers a haunting and insightful examination of the lies we tell ourselves—and the lengths we’ll go to preserve them.
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A Thread of Violence : A Story of Truth, Invention, and Murder
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A Thread of Violence: A Story of Truth, Invention and Murder
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Granta Books 02/n /29 J, 2023
ISBN 10: 1783789573
ISBN 13: 9781783789573
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Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. In 1982 Malcolm Macarthur, the wealthy heir to a small estate, found himself suddenly withoutmoney. The solution, he decided, was to rob a bank. To do this, he would need a gun and a car. Inthe process of procuring them, he killed two people, and the circumstances of his eventual arrestin the apartment of Ireland's Attorney General nearly brought down the government. The case remainsone of the most shocking in Ireland's history and the words used to describe the crimes (grotesque,unprecedented, bizarre, and almost unbelievable) have remained in the cultural lexicon as theacronym GUBU.Mark O'Connell has long been haunted by the story of this brutal double murder. But in recent yearsthis haunting has become mutual. When O'Connell sets out to unravel the mysteries still surroundingthese horrific and inexplicable crimes, he tracks down Macarthur himself, now an elderly man livingout his days in Dublin and reluctant to talk.As the two men circle one another, O'Connell is pushed into a confrontation with his ownnarrative: what does it mean to write about a murderer? What does it mean to write about a killer? From an award-winning author comes a tale of a notoriousdouble-murder, a political scandal, and a writer who found himselfentangled in this strange, true story. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9781783789573
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Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. In 1982 Malcolm Macarthur, the wealthy heir to a small estate, found himself suddenly withoutmoney. The solution, he decided, was to rob a bank. To do this, he would need a gun and a car. Inthe process of procuring them, he killed two people, and the circumstances of his eventual arrestin the apartment of Ireland's Attorney General nearly brought down the government. The case remainsone of the most shocking in Ireland's history and the words used to describe the crimes (grotesque,unprecedented, bizarre, and almost unbelievable) have remained in the cultural lexicon as theacronym GUBU.Mark O'Connell has long been haunted by the story of this brutal double murder. But in recent yearsthis haunting has become mutual. When O'Connell sets out to unravel the mysteries still surroundingthese horrific and inexplicable crimes, he tracks down Macarthur himself, now an elderly man livingout his days in Dublin and reluctant to talk.As the two men circle one another, O'Connell is pushed into a confrontation with his ownnarrative: what does it mean to write about a murderer? What does it mean to write about a killer? From an award-winning author comes a tale of a notoriousdouble-murder, a political scandal, and a writer who found himselfentangled in this strange, true story. Shipping may be from our Sydney, NSW warehouse or from our UK or US warehouse, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9781783789573
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