The Informer

The classic, gritty, and tragic tale of desperation and betrayal in Ireland that inspired John Ford’s Academy Award–winning film.

Dublin, 1920s. In the aftermath of the Irish Civil War, strong but simpleminded Gypo Nolan is at the end of his rope. Desperate to escape to America with his girlfriend, all he needs is money. Meanwhile, his friend and former comrade Frankie McPhillip is a dedicated member of the IRA—and wanted by the police for murder.

When Gypo informs on Frankie in exchange for twenty pounds, his path to freedom is clouded over by his own guilt. But as he squanders his newfound wealth in Dublin’s pubs and brothels, the Party seeks revenge for Frankie’s killing.

Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, The Informer is a classic of twentieth-century Irish literature with a “slowly increasing atmosphere of terror, so perfectly unfolded that the book must be ranked very highly indeed. . . . Unforgettable” (The Sunday Times).