Jennifer Szalai of
The New York Times wrote, "Keefe's narrative is an architectural feat, expertly constructed out of complex and contentious material, arranged and balanced just so."
Maureen Corrigan of
NPR wrote, "Keefe is a
storyteller who captures the complexities of a historical moment by digging deep into the lives of people on all sides of the conflict." Corrigan concludes, "At the end of his panoramic book, which gathers together history, politics and biography, Keefe tightens the focus back to the mystery of McConville's abduction and murder. And, as in the most ingenious
crime stories, Keefe unveils a revelation — lying, so to speak, in plain sight — that only further complicates the moral dimensions of his tale." Devlin Barrett of
The Washington Post described how
Say Nothing is "a cautionary tale, [that] speaks volumes — about the zealotry of youth, the long-term consequences of violence and the politics of forgetting."
The Economist wrote, "The discerning skill with which Mr. Radden Keefe gets inside these characters' minds may unsettle some readers, but it is also his book's strength. He shows how people who in peacetime might just have been strong-willed or colourful types came to condone or perpetrate the unspeakable." Stephen Phillips of the
Los Angeles Times wrote: "
Say Nothing powerfully documents a society benumbed by trauma attempting to reckon with the abyss that engulfed it." In May 2019, Irish journalist
Ed Moloney, the director of the Belfast Project, published a piece in
CounterPunch in which he alleged several inaccuracies in Keefe's book. He also criticised Keefe's decision to cite the book using
endnotes, which a publishing industry source told Moloney "convey a more commercial narrative", instead of using
Chicago Manual of Style footnotes. With Keefe not using footnotes, Moloney says: "The writing thus flows uninterrupted, appearing to the untutored reader – or reviewer – as being the work of the author when it may not be. It takes hard work and determination to discover how much of this book is truly original reporting and how much is taken from other people's work. A 'more commercial narrative' indeed."
Awards and honors The book was named one of the top ten books of 2019 by both
The New York Times Book Review and
The Washington Post. It won the 2019
National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction. In 2024, it was listed #19 on
The New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century list. ==Television adaptation==