The Secret Scripture: Sebastian Barry

Synopsis:

Roseanne McNulty, perhaps nearing her one-hundredth birthday - no one is quite sure - faces an uncertain future, as the Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital where she's spent the best part of her adult life prepares for closure. Over the weeks leading up to this upheaval, she talks often with her psychiatrist Dr Grene. This relationship, guarded but trusting after so many years, intensifies and complicates as Dr Grene mourns the death of his wife.

Told through their respective journals, the story that emerges - of Roseanne's family in 1930s Sligo - is at once shocking and deeply beautiful. Refracted through the haze of memory and retelling, Roseanne's story becomes an alternative, secret, history of Ireland. Exquisitely written, it is the story of a life blighted by terrible mistreatment and ignorance, and yet marked still by love and passion and hope.

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Categorised as:
Fiction
Sub-categories:
General Fiction
Places:
Ireland
People & Characters:
Eneas Mcnulty; Roseanne Mcnulty
Genres & Themes:
Families; Love; Recollection; Secrets
Related Articles:
Sebastian Barry Shortlisted for Borders Author of the Year; Sebastian Barry Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2008

Reading Guide:

The Secret Scripture book cover
Selected edition:
Paperback
ISBN:
9780571215294
Published:
29.01.2009
No of pages:
320

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