In Everything in This Country Must, Colum McCann explodes the idea that the conflict over Northern Ireland was ever black and white, or that it will ever really be solved. We're told, in the history books and the newspapers, that the Troubles were complex, but that Protestants and Catholics, Unionists and Republicans all generally supported "their" side. We're also told that peace came through a referendum and the seating of a government in Stormont Castle. You only have to read this book to realize that's rubbish.

The themes in the stories and the short novel are about what you'd expect. They include divided loyalties, forbidden love, the destruction of families unable to stand the tension, and a community at war with itself despite the "good people" who just want to get along. But there's something deeper, and you see it right away, in the story about the horse. Katie's father is so resentful of the soldiers who stop to help him that he kills the horse after they leave. The first time you read that scene, it looks like a fit of pique. It's only after you read the story again that you see it's an act of faith. Her father's revulsion is so strong that he burns up the last traces of his pity by shooting the mare. He swallows what's left of his grief over the death of his wife, and he burns his bridges. There's no way out for him now, except forward, through the end of the conflict, which "his side" must win. Either he'll see peace as he imagines it, or he'll die waiting for it.

The tragic thing for Ireland—both halves of it—is that he doesn't do anything with this. There's no second act where the farmer joins the IRA. He doesn't inform on his neighbors or try to blow up a checkpoint. He doesn't even seek solace in the Church. All we're left with is his commitment, and it isn't for peace. The Troubles might be over in 2019, barely, but if you believe Colum McCann, it's hard to believe that will last.