A 2013 World Book Night selection.
A powerful and moving novel bringing the worlds of Ireland's past and present together. Great characterisation and a thought provoking story.
Winner of the Independent Booksellers’ Book Prize 2009 (Adult category).
Winner of the Costa Book of the Year Award 2008.
Winner of the Costa Novel Award 2008.
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2008.
Costa Book Awards 2008 Judges' comment: "A heartbreaking and lyrical tale of loss, betrayal and redemption."
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
| Recommendations: |
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Closing date: 04/07/2026
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.
The Secret Scripture features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Book Club Recommendations, eBooks of the Month, General Fiction, Fiction, Recommendations
The Secret Scripture is available in Paperback, Hardback
The Secret Scripture was written by Sebastian Barry and published by Faber and Faber
The Secret Scripture has 312 pages
£8.99
