What do you think?
Rate this book
Silver városa
A novel set in Belfast during an undeclared war. By the author of "Poor Lazarus" and "Stamping Ground".
236 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
102 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 11, 2016
"The Devil hath established/ His cities in the North" - Maurice Leitch quotes St Augustine, and the city in question is the Belfast of the late 70's/early 80's that Leitch knows and recreates so convincingly.
Silver is a Loyalist prisoner, his heroic status proclaimed on the gable walls of the working class Protestant areas of Belfast. He is sprung from his hospital sick bed by his erstwhile comrades but their intentions, he quickly realises, aren't benign: Silver has, despite his legendary status, become a source of concern for the hierarchy on the outside - Silver has recorded his evolving inner thoughts (on old cassette tapes) and his orthodoxy, and loyalty, is in doubt.
He escapes from his old comrades but, in the crucible of Belfast, Silver's city, where can he be free? In the rigid demarcation of the time, in all the middle class areas he would be an alien curiosity and soon recaptured, in the working class Catholic areas he would immediately be held as a trophy prisoner until his inevitable execution.
Silver's City, in the end, is limited to the working class Protestant streets where he might see 'Silver Rules OK' scrawled on a wall but those familiar streets are now as dangerous as the others.
Silver escapes to the countryside with a woman who, at least initially, is intoxicated by his singular celebrity. Silver, with no other option, goes along for the ride but anticipates that he will betray her sooner rather than later.
He is hunted now by the Loyalist hit-man, Ned Galloway, more Hyde than Jekyll, who himself becomes estranged from the paramilitary leadership and who now seeks redemption by inflicting slow pain and death on Silver.
The Belfast described by Leitch is claustrophobic and cruel. Silver is treated to a night out in the local social club, the sort of place where all patrons are 'sound', where a stranger won't be admitted or, if they are admitted, will immediately be assessed for the required loyalty quotient and, where they don't meet the benchmark, may very well be found dead in a dark alleyway. The stark interior serves as a stomping ground for the enforcers in a not-so-secret army - everybody acknowledging the divine right of armed authority. Silver's dilemna is that it was in such places his reputation, his power, was nurtured and burnished - now somebody else holds the power and he is a threat.
The basic plot of the story could easily be transplanted to any place where the powerful abuse their power. In Leitch's hands, though, Belfast, Silver's City, is an intractable character in its own right. Written over 35 years ago, much of the physical character of the city has changed but the ingrained sense of place, and the prerequisite loyalty to your own, and the attendant suspicion, or hostility, to the other may seem dormant but the levers to spark to animated fury can still be manipulated.
To Leitch's great credit, he allows his characters the respect to be as they are without much in the way of overwrought moralising - many "Troubles" writers can't resist the temptation to thread their own take on the conflict into the fabric of the story (often it is the 'this would be a great wee country if the terrorists would leave it alone' or 'vulnerable and/or misguided idealistic youth duped by cunning criminal armchair godfathers on the make', and sometimes with a couple of star-crossed lovers reaching across the barricades). Instead, we find Leitch's characters doing what they do and being who they are - the pompous local commander Bonner, the sociopathic killer Galloway, exorcising his pent-up frustrations by cold-blooded executions of family men in front of young daughters, the disillusioned Nan taking Silver as her opportunity to escape her disappointment in her miserable Belfast life.
And Silver, his destiny determined at birth, capitulating to the fate the city demands:
"The light was beginning to fail outside, he could tell, despite his eyes. He thought of the city and the street-lamps lighting one by one, the city that had made him what he was. Old and cynical begetter, it watched its sons come, it watched them go. Despite dreams, he had been brought back down to the level of its streets, as it always knew he would... Perhaps they would lock him away from the others this time. He would have plenty of time to go-over the things that crammed his head. That would be his sentence, for the city always made you pay for your dreams."
Silver is a Loyalist prisoner, his heroic status proclaimed on the gable walls of the working class Protestant areas of Belfast. He is sprung from his hospital sick bed by his erstwhile comrades but their intentions, he quickly realises, aren't benign: Silver has, despite his legendary status, become a source of concern for the hierarchy on the outside - Silver has recorded his evolving inner thoughts (on old cassette tapes) and his orthodoxy, and loyalty, is in doubt.
He escapes from his old comrades but, in the crucible of Belfast, Silver's city, where can he be free? In the rigid demarcation of the time, in all the middle class areas he would be an alien curiosity and soon recaptured, in the working class Catholic areas he would immediately be held as a trophy prisoner until his inevitable execution.
Silver's City, in the end, is limited to the working class Protestant streets where he might see 'Silver Rules OK' scrawled on a wall but those familiar streets are now as dangerous as the others.
Silver escapes to the countryside with a woman who, at least initially, is intoxicated by his singular celebrity. Silver, with no other option, goes along for the ride but anticipates that he will betray her sooner rather than later.
He is hunted now by the Loyalist hit-man, Ned Galloway, more Hyde than Jekyll, who himself becomes estranged from the paramilitary leadership and who now seeks redemption by inflicting slow pain and death on Silver.
The Belfast described by Leitch is claustrophobic and cruel. Silver is treated to a night out in the local social club, the sort of place where all patrons are 'sound', where a stranger won't be admitted or, if they are admitted, will immediately be assessed for the required loyalty quotient and, where they don't meet the benchmark, may very well be found dead in a dark alleyway. The stark interior serves as a stomping ground for the enforcers in a not-so-secret army - everybody acknowledging the divine right of armed authority. Silver's dilemna is that it was in such places his reputation, his power, was nurtured and burnished - now somebody else holds the power and he is a threat.
The basic plot of the story could easily be transplanted to any place where the powerful abuse their power. In Leitch's hands, though, Belfast, Silver's City, is an intractable character in its own right. Written over 35 years ago, much of the physical character of the city has changed but the ingrained sense of place, and the prerequisite loyalty to your own, and the attendant suspicion, or hostility, to the other may seem dormant but the levers to spark to animated fury can still be manipulated.
To Leitch's great credit, he allows his characters the respect to be as they are without much in the way of overwrought moralising - many "Troubles" writers can't resist the temptation to thread their own take on the conflict into the fabric of the story (often it is the 'this would be a great wee country if the terrorists would leave it alone' or 'vulnerable and/or misguided idealistic youth duped by cunning criminal armchair godfathers on the make', and sometimes with a couple of star-crossed lovers reaching across the barricades). Instead, we find Leitch's characters doing what they do and being who they are - the pompous local commander Bonner, the sociopathic killer Galloway, exorcising his pent-up frustrations by cold-blooded executions of family men in front of young daughters, the disillusioned Nan taking Silver as her opportunity to escape her disappointment in her miserable Belfast life.
And Silver, his destiny determined at birth, capitulating to the fate the city demands:
"The light was beginning to fail outside, he could tell, despite his eyes. He thought of the city and the street-lamps lighting one by one, the city that had made him what he was. Old and cynical begetter, it watched its sons come, it watched them go. Despite dreams, he had been brought back down to the level of its streets, as it always knew he would... Perhaps they would lock him away from the others this time. He would have plenty of time to go-over the things that crammed his head. That would be his sentence, for the city always made you pay for your dreams."
March 16, 2017
Not sure where I read about this book, which is set in Belfast and includes elements of the paramilitary underbelly that has blighted the city since the late 1960s. I enjoyed 'Liberty Lad' by the same author, but really didn't warm to this one and somehow managed to get bored, no mean feat in an 180 page story.
Not for me.
Not for me.
September 5, 2021
Leitch is an accomplished, but neglected Northern Irish writer. This novel won the 1981 Whitbread Prize (now the Costa), and deservedly so. It is the story of Silver, a Protestant Loyalist who served time in the 1970's to the time of this story. It describes the descent of Protestant paramilitaries into gangsterism. Unmentioned in this novel is that nationalist paramilitaries (the IRA) were doing the same.
Silver is kidnapped by the gangster element. He escapes and a sociopathic Scot, recruited for the job of kidnapping Silver, seeks him out to murder him. The story is told through a series of episodes told through the eyes of various characters. It works well.
A suspenseful story that is punctuated with lyrical descriptions of the city of Belfast. This luscious prose is enough on its own to merit reading the book.
Read as part of a new 5th Monday book club that focuses on reading forgotten and neglected books - fiction and non fiction from Ireland - Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Silver is kidnapped by the gangster element. He escapes and a sociopathic Scot, recruited for the job of kidnapping Silver, seeks him out to murder him. The story is told through a series of episodes told through the eyes of various characters. It works well.
A suspenseful story that is punctuated with lyrical descriptions of the city of Belfast. This luscious prose is enough on its own to merit reading the book.
Read as part of a new 5th Monday book club that focuses on reading forgotten and neglected books - fiction and non fiction from Ireland - Northern Ireland and the Republic.
September 20, 2017
Thirty-six years after its original publication, the Whitbread Prize-winning Silver’s City has been republished, introducing a whole new generation of readers to the literary voice of Maurice Leitch. Set in the dark days of the Troubles, the tale is dark, gritty and loaded with the tension of the times. Loyalist gunman and hero Silver Steele has been sprung from his 10-year detention in the cages of Her Majesty’s Prison and is now “under the protection” of a hit-man named Galloway. The streets of Belfast have changed during Silver’s incarceration and the men seem to be fighting for a different cause. Roads blocks, checkpoints and helicopter presence are omnipresent but the atmosphere has changed: “It was rare to hear any mention of religion, no matter how oblique, these days. People were wary, had learned the lesson well.” The talk is now of prisoner protests and privileges. Galloway is hardcore, yet Silver is spent. Two strangers, thrown together in a world of bigotry and hatred, with a tenuous link. A timely reminder of hard borders and religious intolerance.
August 31, 2021
Not an easy book. Older book. Tough slog for some. Ireland's "Troubles." Iconic. Very much enjoyed the writing. Background. Ireland's independence from Britain is a sore spot for a great many people. in the 1960s and 1970s violence erupted in Northern Ireland especially that basically demonstrated the fact that the "sore spot" was actually a festering infection that finally erupted in an explosion of blood and pus. It was an ugly, ugly, sight. It is still not fully healed, but a Peace Accord was reached. Query whether it will soothe enough, there are provisions that try to clean out the wound, time will tell. In this milieu this book tells the story of Silver Steele, purportedly a Protestant gun man who fired the first shot of the Troubles. DO NOT Google his name, it is fictional and if you do you'll find out the name is that of a porn actor. The story is vague-is pretty much through out. Silver (as he's known) is taken from prison to hospital where he is kidnapped/broken out of jail. But there are tapes -- did he grass out his mates or give his life story? Will they kill him or is he being given a hero's return? Are they all low life thugs or is someone else pulling the strings? Who actually benefits from the Troubles? What was it all about after all? Was it working class Catholics against working class Protestants or not? And I have to say, there's a Scotsman involved and it seems there's always a crazy Scotsman involved; and always the British Army, former soldiers.
Are we pawns in someone else's game? Is there justice? Is there economic justice? Should England leave Ireland alone?
Are we pawns in someone else's game? Is there justice? Is there economic justice? Should England leave Ireland alone?
July 13, 2025
Paranoid and violent noir crime. Factions and allegiances stay obscured and unclear - a chaotic mix of violent politics turned violent crime. I imagine pretty representative of the Northern Irish reality.
February 25, 2016
Silver's City is a grim thriller set in the early days of the 'Troubles'. Silver Steele is a high profile prisoner who fired the first shot in the Troubles and his name is spelt out across the walls of Loyalist Belfast. Ten years of prison have changed Silver. Military discipline, reading and solitary thinking mean that the man who is busted out is far different form the young man who went in. Even more striking is the difference between what the city was and what it has become. "It began to seem like a crazy planet out there, beyond the chicken wire, with politicians roaring on, off, hot and cold, ordinary people in the grip of violent and unreasonable action for its own sake."
This would be a good primer for anyone trying to get a handle on the forces that tore, and still tear, at the fabric of society in Northern Ireland. A superior slice of highbrow pulp.
This would be a good primer for anyone trying to get a handle on the forces that tore, and still tear, at the fabric of society in Northern Ireland. A superior slice of highbrow pulp.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews