Secret Scripture - Softcover

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), Tales of Ballycumber (2009) and Andersen's English (2010). His novels include The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty (1998), Annie Dunne(2002), A Long Long Way (2005) and The Secret Scripture (2008) and, most recently, On Canaan's Side (2011). He has won, among other awards, the Irish-America Fund Literary Award, the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Prize, the London Critics Circle Award and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Prize. A Long Long Way, which was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Dublin International Impac Prize, was the Dublin: One City One Book choice for 2007. The Secret Scripture won the Costa Book of the Year award, the Irish Book Awards Best Novel, the Independent Booksellers Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award and the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Award. He lives in Wicklow with his wife and three children.

Nearing her one-hundredth birthday, and facing the closure of the mental institution where she's spent most her adulthood, Roseanne relates her astonishing life to psychiatrist Dr Grene. Told through their respective journals, the story that emerges is at once shocking and deeply beautiful. Exquisitely written, it is the story of a life blighted by terrible mistreatment and ignorance, and yet marked still by love, passion and hope.