An astonishing act of investigation and documentation. In the face of lies, denial and massive indifference, Bikont has established exactly what happened ... The result is a terrifying and necessary book, unsparing in its detail, but deeply heartening as an act of historical reclamation.

Scrupulously objective and profoundly personal.

A powerful and important study of the poisonous effects of racism and hatred within a community.

A masterpiece of historical journalism … A must read for anyone interested in the Holocaust and its aftermath.

A hauntingly plausible contemporary history, tactfully delivering truths that we might all do well to contemplate.

Humane, measured and painstakingly researched ... It is a hard-won testament to the importance of historical truth.

Beautifully written, devastating and very important.

One of the most important and most dramatic books of the last decade.

Magisterial... meticulous in its procedures, absolute in its commitment to truth. Bikont's book is a book about forgetting, about the pollution of memory, about the conflict between the easy, convenient truth and the awkward, harder truth. It is a work that grows from its journalistic manner and origins into the most powerful writing of necessary history.

The Crime and the Silence deserves to be read by everyone interested in the fraught politics of apology and the ongoing struggle of nations and communities to ascertain and accept difficult historical truths.

Writing with uncompromising honesty and fine-tuned sensitivity, Bikont gives us intimate insight into the sources of neighbourly violence – and the rare courage needed to resist it. A wrenching, humane, necessary book.

The Crime and the Silence is a masterpiece of historical journalism. Combining remarkable archival study and courageous reportage, Anna Bikont reconstructs the context of the Jedwabne murder story, a wave of killings of Jews by their neighbours in the Polish countryside. A fascinating and deeply researched book, it is a must read for anyone interested in the Holocaust and its aftermath.

As she investigates the case of mass murder that transformed her home country’s entire national myth, Anna Bikont combines the persistence and energy of a journalist with the humanity and care of a poet. The result is a hauntingly plausible contemporary history, tactfully delivering truths that we might all do well to contemplate.

The Crime and the Silence is an astonishing act of investigation and documentation. In the face of lies, denial, and massive indifference, Anna Bikont has established exactly what happened – before, during, and after in a small but atrocious massacre in Eastern Poland in July 1941. The subsequent decades – long silence is as shocking as the initial crime. The result is a terrifying and necessary book, unsparing in its detail, but deeply heartening as an act of historical reclamation.

This is one of the saddest books I have ever read – written by the most sanguine person I know.

The Crime and the Silence tells the story of a massacre; it also lays bare the work of an investigative journalist. Ms Bikont meticulously checked facts and corroborated testimonies. She struggled with the ethics of persuading witnesses to appear under their own names, when she could offer them no protection. She struggled, too, with the ethics of disguising her own identity so as to persuade people to talk to her. Time after time, residents of the town slammed doors in her face… Ms Bikont did not give up; the quality of her journalism is something very special. An extraordinary interviewer, she developed relationships with the most unlikely cast of characters… This book leaves the reader haunted.

A full account of the Polish church’s involvement with the massacre, with German permission, of the Jewish population of a town in Poland. A perfect example of the small instance standing for a whole, very Christian country’s denial of its enthusiasm for killing neighbours.

Bikont bravely penetrated the curtain of oblivion cloaking the crime, and denounced it

A dreamy narrative which slips effortlessly from past to present and allows the voices of those who were there to shine

Utterly absorbing … I can’t recommend it more strongly

The beauty and boldness of this memoir - pieced together from pictures, letters, diaries, cuttings and military archives - is in its healing honesty and the complex, flawed character of Tom, and his daughter's unbroken spirit in the aftermath of her father's derring-do and deep family damage

Her tragicomic memoir about her relationship with her eccentric WW2 veteran father [...] explores family breakdown, dementia and the effects of war and peace on the psyche -- as well as the fierce power of daughterly love

Book of the Week: When Keggie Carew started to investigate her father's past, she knew she was in a race against time... vivid accounts of her father's past exploits are punctuated with painful bulletins detailing his mental decline ... An extraordinary life and a sui generis debut.

An engaging, funny and evocative depiction of war, snobbery, deprivation, insanity, dementia and ghastly relatives. The author captures the flavour of every scene she describes... holding the reader's attention with masterfully constructed intercut sequences of ancient, recent and modern family history

This is in part a work of reconstruction, unravelling Tom's life, partly a family history, and it's fascinating

This is a story of journeys, love, loss, memory and family and Boy's Own daring... beautiful, nostalgic, moving, shocking, swashbuckling and simply unputdownable

I’m halfway through Dadland by Keggie Carew and OH THIS BOOK. Beautiful and fierce and brave. Memory and war and family and loss and, well, wow.

I loved Dadland for its tenderness, humour and candour. It has begun to open the door for me to what may well lie ahead in my life, in so many of our lives, in terms of ageing parents. And it has also taught me something deeply moving about tolerance, and about love

A wonderful, haunting and beautifully written memoir... I found myself laughing out loud at times and, at others, unable to hold back the tears... An absolutely stunning book

Dadland has the weight of family love but fizzes along in accessible and dynamic prose, highly recommended

A mesmerising performance by a natural storyteller gifted with the most seductive material possible, in the wild and wonderful life of her exasperating Irish father. Pain and annoyance is transmuted into pure narrative gold, as Keggie Carew interrogates the legend of this wartime adventurer and the bitter comedy of his domestic relationships and his late decline. A brave, risk-taking tale that alarms, delights and moves. As soon as you come to the end, you want to start again, to see if those things really happened

You love these people from the first page ... As Tom's life falls apart memory by memory, Keggie is picking it up again and her storytelling is spell-binding. Effortlessly readable, this is a delight combining laughter - and tears, yes, quite a few of those.

Compelling

A moving memoir-cum-biography.

By some margin my Book of the Month... A detective story, a family history, a thrilling tale of derring-do, and the most distinctive and affecting memoir I’ve read since H is for Hawk.

Utterly remarkable, and beautifully evoked… Dadland is a completely riveting, deeply poignant “manhunt” for which I predict great things.

Dadland, by Keggie Carew, is being tipped for award-winning breakout success in the vein of H is for Hawk

It’s an exorcism, ghost-hunt and swim through the archipelago of her father’s shattered self… The author’s descriptions have an easy lyricism.

The old question 'what did you do in the war, Dad?' has never had a more surprising or moving answer.

Warm and funny, sometimes regretful and sad, but overall a read like a rollercoaster. Wonderful.

You know the saying that everyone has a book in them? Well, unless your book is as good as this, I'd give up right now

You know the saying that everyone has a book in them? Well, unless your book is as good as this, I’d give up right now… This gripping book, written with real verve and a narrative expertise that wouldn’t shame a veteran.

A brilliant, bittersweet biography.

Keggie’s writing is immersive… She writes with a warmth and generosity about her father, a man who was a genuine character and hero.

Dadland is deeply personal. But it is also the story of our generations: people touched by war and by Alzheimer’s