Not Untrue & Not Unkind

By: Ed O’Loughlin

Narrated by: Gerard Doyle

In Dublin, a newspaper editor called Cartwright is found dead. One of his colleagues, Owen Simmons, discovers a dossier on Cartwright’s desk containing a photograph that brings him back to a dusty road in Africa and to a woman he once loved.

Not Untrue & Not Unkind is Owen’s story, a gripping tale of friendship, rivalry, and betrayal among a group of journalists and photographers covering Africa’s wars. It is an astonishingly powerful and accomplished debut that immediately establishes Ed O’Loughlin as a mature master of the novel form.

©2009 Ed O’Loughlin (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“One of the most powerful debut Irish novels of the last decade.” ( Sunday Business Post)

“Passionate, colorful….Love story and tragedy, mystery and professional satire (à la Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop) all rolled into one.” ( Irish Times )

Great book - but difficut listen

This contender for the Man Booker prize in 2010 is a first rate story of reporters in Rwanda & Zaire during the horrible events of the 1990s. It is well and intricately told and reminded me of John LeCarre's understated style. Great book, but it requires attention. I found I couldn't follow it on Audible and I ended up purchasing a written version, which I loved. The reader, Gerald Doyle, uses a Scottish accent which is probably fitting, but his lilt made it sound as if every sentence ended with a question mark. It distracted me. I recommend listening to a sample before you buy.

Interesting and annoying!

A story of journalists working in Africa, in the Congo in the nineties. Well written and evocative of time and place. Infuriating protagonist who seems at times to be only half alive (I kept thinking of Jerome’s “Diary of a Nobody) but we never find out why. Also, he is obviously Irish but refuses to name the country he is from and the city - Dublin - he now lives in, referring to them as a small Northern European country and as a cold northern city on an estuary. On the whole, I found it worth reading but felt it never quite delivered on its promise.