Books › The Price of My Soul
The Price of My Soul
First published 1969 · 224 pages
A fiery, unvarnished dispatch from the front lines of a revolution, fueled by youth, righteous anger, and an unyielding demand for justice.
What it feels like
Reading this memoir feels like standing shoulder-to-shoulder in a barricaded street, the air thick with tension and the electric hum of impending change. Written with the breathless urgency of a twenty-one-year-old thrust into the center of a historical maelstrom, the narrative moves at a brisk, uncompromising clip. The prose is entirely devoid of political polish; instead, it is sharp, wry, and deeply rooted in the gritty realities of working-class survival. You are immersed in a mood of righteous defiance, feeling the claustrophobia of systemic oppression give way to the explosive release of collective action. It will deeply resonate with anyone who craves authentic, boots-on-the-ground accounts of radicalization, offering a visceral snapshot of a young woman refusing to compromise her soul for the status quo.
- Mood
- electrified
- tense
- righteous
- gritty
- Tone
- defiant
- urgent
- unvarnished
- passionate
- wry
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- political awakening · working-class solidarity · youthful rebellion · systemic oppression · the personal cost of activism
- The writing
- Direct, sharp, and fiercely articulate, blending street-level pragmatism with soaring political conviction.
- The arc
- Moves from the quiet indignities of an impoverished childhood to the fiery, high-stakes crucible of revolutionary leadership.
- Who it's for
- Readers drawn to unapologetic, firsthand accounts of radicalization and grassroots resistance.
Content notes
- sectarian violence
- police brutality
- poverty
- systemic discrimination
About the book
From the Foreword "I have written this book in the attempt to explain how the complex of economic, social, and political problems of Northern Ireland threw up the phenomenon of Bernadette Devlin.
I also want to tell the story of the protest movement which wrote Northern Ireland across the world's headlines in 1968 and 1969."
Description from Open Library.
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