Book review: Fierce history overwhelms human story

Thomas Keneally's lightly-fictionalised account of John Mitchel, lawyer, journalist, and political activist in the Young Ireland movement of the mid-19th century

Australian novelist, playwright, and essayist Thomas Keneally is the veteran author of 35 other novels, including the Booker Prize-winning 'Schindler’s Ark', and some 20 non-fiction books. Picture: Getty Images

• Fanatic Heart 
• Thomas Keneally 
• Faber & Faber, £20