'The Madness is a powerful account of the brutality of conflict and the horrors of war - both across the world and inside the self. In sharp prose, Keane writes compellingly about where his thirst for truth comes from, and takes him to the frontline of the some of the most infamous violence of our times. Unsettled ghosts rise from the bogs of Kerry; unmarked graves in Northern Ireland; Rwandan soil; a cellar in Palestine - what's clear is man's inhumanity to man is relentless and haunts the writer, driving him to understand our most base motivations, to rationalise terror, to witness and report conflict at close range and ultimately, to do no harm. The Madness is an extraordinary, captivating account of one man's journey in search of truth, as he excavates the human story from chaos.'
- Elaine Feeney
'Fergal Keane's unflinching account of the effects of trauma on his own life is the source of his book's profound capacity to move its reader. With radical honesty and openness, and a vulnerability that I suspect required no small amount of courage, he more than fulfils the aim he sets out for himself in the prologue: to let others who bear similar burdens know they are not alone.'
- Kevin Powers, bestselling and prize-winning author of The Yellow Birds
'A completely honest account of reporting conflict.'
- Independent
'An empowering story of triumph over adversity.'
- Irish Times
'Profoundly honest.'
- Observer
'His book is a memoir but it is so much more than that...a volume of the most exquisitely written and moving truth and honesty.'
- TLS
'Keane catches both shrinking revulsion and astounding courage to brilliant effect...I found myself, on one or two pages towards the close, caught in a choking emotion.'
- The Guardian