Much of the real joy of reading Barry is in the bobbing freshet of his language.

He is intent on assessing her competence and discovering her history, while she dissembles self-protectively, ‘a foul and utter lie being the best answer’ when he asks about the circumstances of her admittance … Many angelic references and much religious imagery are to be found here (slaughtered lambs, for example), but at the root of it all is the lambent quality of experience, not religion per se. In The Secret Scripture, Barry revisits County Sligo, Ireland, the setting for his previous three books, to tell the unforgettable story of Roseanne McNulty. Their interaction, complete with its silences, works its way into their respective self-searching accounts of life, forming the loose catechism of the novel … Circumstances require that the doctor and his patient play cat and mouse. Nearing her 100th birthday, Roseanne McNulty faces an uncertain future. Sebastian Barry’s haunting story of a life blighted by terrible mistreatment and ignorance, yet still marked by love, passion and hope. In a recent conversation with the novelist Jo Hamya, Barry reflected on the process and experience of writing the book. William Grene, senior psychiatrist at Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital, whose commonplace journal renders him a co-narrator of The Secret Scripture. The Secret Scripture Written by Sebastian Barry Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2008. Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2008, is the story of Roseanne, a woman approaching her 100th birthday who has spent much of her adult life in a Sligo asylum now due to close.

A wary reticence and sincere befuddlement tend to muddy her conversations with Dr. Despite her name, Roseanne Clear is hardly transparent.

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry