The Secret Scripture

By Sebastian Barry
(Penguin (Non-Classics), Paperback, 9780143115694, 320pp.)

Publication Date: April 28, 2009

Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook, Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Compact Disc, Compact Disc, MP3 CD, Paperback

Categories: Historical - General

Selected by Indie Booksellers for the Fall '09/Winter '10 Reading Group List

“This is a haunting story of memory and how seemingly small decisions can have large consequences. As 100-year-old Roseanne, a patient in a mental institution, tries to reconstruct her life, she realizes that memory is not always reliable, and that truth may not be attainable. In addition to offering readers characters with grace and writing that is mesmerizing, The Secret Scripture invites discussions about what 'truth' is and how cultural circumstances and individual choices define a life.”

-- Rona Brinlee, The Book Mark, Atlantic Beach, FL

Selected by Indie Booksellers for the July 2008 Indie Next List

Description

An epic story of family, love, and unavoidable tragedy from the two-time Man Booker Prize finalist

Sebastian Barry 's novels have been hugely admired by readers and critics, and in 2005 his novel A Long Long Way was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In The Secret Scripture, Barry revisits County Sligo, Ireland, the setting for his previous three books, to tell the unforgettable story of Roseanne McNulty. Once one of the most beguiling women in Sligo, she is now a resident of Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital and nearing her hundredth year. Set against an Ireland besieged by conflict, The Secret Scripture is an engrossing tale of one woman's life, and a vivid reminder of the stranglehold that the Catholic church had on individuals throughout much of the twentieth century.

About the Author

Sebastian Barry was born in Dublin in 1955. His plays include Boss Grady's Boys (1988), The Steward of Christendom (1995), Our Lady of Sligo (1998), The Pride of Parnell Street (2007), and Dallas Sweetman (2008). Among his novels are The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty (1998), Annie Dunne (2002) and A Long Long Way (2005), the latter shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. His poetry includes The Water-Colourist (1982), Fanny Hawke Goes to the Mainland Forever (1989) and The Pinkening Boy (2005). His awards include the Irish-America Fund Literary Award, The Christopher Ewart-Biggs Prize, the London Critics Circle Award, The Kerry Group Irish Fiction Prize, and Costa Awards for Best Novel and Book of the Year. He lives in Wicklow with his wife Ali, and three children, Merlin, Coral, and Tobias.

Praise For The Secret Scripture…

" [Barry writes] in language of surpassing beauty. . . . It is like a song, with all the pulse of the Irish language, a song sung liltingly and plaintively from the top of Ben Bulben into the airy night."
-Dinitia Smith, The New York Times

" Barry recounts all this in prose of often startling beauty. Just as he describes people stopping in the street to look at Roseanne, so I often found myself stopping to look at the sentences he gave her, wanting to pause and copy them down."
-Margot Livesey, The Boston Globe

"Luminous and lyrical."
-O, The Oprah Magazine

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