The Secret Scripture

Last updated

The Secret Scripture
The Secret Scripture.jpg
First edition cover
Author Sebastian Barry
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
Publisher Faber and Faber
Publication date
29 September 2008
Publication placeIreland
Media typePrint (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages312 pp (Paperback)
ISBN 978-0-571-21529-4
OCLC 300404404
Preceded by A Long Long Way  
Followed by On Canaan's Side  

The Secret Scripture is a 2008 novel written by Irish writer Sebastian Barry.

Contents

Plot summary

The main character is an old woman, Roseanne McNulty, who now resides in the Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital. Having been a patient for some fifty years or more, Roseanne decides to write an autobiography. She calls it "Roseanne's testimony of herself" and charts her life and that of her parents, living in Sligo at the turn of the 20th century. She keeps her story hidden under the loose floorboard in her room, unsure as yet if she wants it to be found. The second narrative is the "commonplace book" of the current chief Psychiatrist of the hospital, Dr Grene. The hospital now faces imminent demolition. He must decide who of his patients are to be transferred, and who must be released into the community. He is particularly concerned about Roseanne, and begins tentatively to attempt to discover her history. It soon becomes apparent that both Roseanne and Dr Grene have differing stories as to her incarceration and her early life, but what is consistent in both narratives is that Roseanne fell victim to the religious and political upheavals in Ireland in the 1920s – 1930s.

Inspiration

The novel was inspired by a story told to him by his mother of an old relative:

We were driving through Sligo, and my mother pointed out a hut and told me that was where my great uncle's first wife had lived before being put into a lunatic asylum by the family. She knew nothing more, except that she was beautiful. [1] I once heard my grandfather say that she was no good. That's what survives and the rumours of her beauty. She was nameless, fateless, unknown. I felt I was almost duty-bound as a novelist to reclaim her and, indeed, remake her. [2]

The story also ties in with previous novels by Barry, especially The Whereabouts of Eneas Mcnulty, the title character being a brother in law to Roseanne McNulty.

Reception

On The Omnivore , a British aggregator of press reviews, the book received an "omniscore" of 4 out of 5. [3] On Book Marks, the book received a "positive" consensus, based on 10 critic reviews: 4 "rave" and 5 "positive" and 1 "mixed". [4] In Bookmarks May/June 2009 issue, a magazine that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg (4.00 out of 5) with the summary stating, "Again and again the critics cited Barry’s lovely, musical language as one of the greatest treasures of The Secret Scripture". [5]

Awards

It won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, one of the most prestigious English literature prizes and the oldest prize in the United Kingdom.

The novel won the Book of the Year at the 2008 Costa Book Awards. [6] This was despite the misgivings of the jury, one of whom, Matthew Parris, said "They agreed that it was flawed, and almost no one liked the ending, which was almost fatal to its success." [1]

At the Irish Book Awards, it won "Novel of the Year" and the Choice Award. [7]

It was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, [8] narrowly losing to The White Tiger. [9]

Book at Bedtime adaptation

In May 2008, the novel was adapted and abridged by Neville Teller for BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime with Doreen Keogh and Alex Jennings voicing the roles of Roseanne and Dr. Grene, respectively. [10]

Film adaptation

A film version, also titled The Secret Scripture, was directed by Jim Sheridan and stars Rooney Mara and Vanessa Redgrave. [11] Filming began in January 2015.[ citation needed ] In February, filming moved to Inistioge, County Kilkenny. [12] Filming completed on 6 March. [13] Other stars include Eric Bana and Theo James [14] as well as Irish natives Jack Reynor, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, and Aidan Turner. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan O'Hara</span> Irish actress

Joan O'Hara was an Irish stage, film and television actress. She was one of Ireland's most popular actresses and was, at her death, recognisable to television viewers as Eunice Dunstan, a gossip in Fair City on RTÉ One.

Sebastian Barry is an Irish novelist, playwright and poet. He was named Laureate for Irish Fiction, 2018–2021.

<i>Child 44</i> 2008 thriller novel by Tom Rob Smith

Child 44 is a 2008 thriller novel by British writer Tom Rob Smith. It is the first novel in a trilogy featuring former MGB Agent Leo Demidov, who investigates a series of gruesome child murders in Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union.

<i>Summertime</i> (novel) Autofiction novel by J. M. Coetzee

Summertime is a 2009 novel by South African-born Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee. It is the third in a series of fictionalized memoirs by Coetzee and details the life of one John Coetzee from the perspective of five people who have known him.

<i>Brooklyn</i> (novel) 2009 novel by Colm Tóibín

Brooklyn is a 2009 novel by Irish author Colm Tóibín. It won the 2009 Costa Novel Award, was shortlisted for the 2011 International Dublin Literary Award and was longlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize. In 2012, The Observer named it as one of "The 10 best historical novels".

<i>Untold Story</i> (novel) Novel by Monica Ali

Untold Story is a novel by Monica Ali, her fourth book after two novels and a collection of short stories. It asks what would have happened if Princess Diana had not died in a car accident in Paris in 1997 but had arranged for her own disappearance and tried to live an undiscovered life in a small American town. In the novel, Princess Diana is portrayed in fictional form as an English expat named Lydia. The story is told through a combination of third person narrative, diary entries of the princess's former personal secretary, Lawrence Standing, and letters written by Lydia.

<i>On Canaans Side</i> 2011 novel by Sebastian Barry

On Canaan's Side is a 2011 novel written by Irish playwright and novelist Sebastian Barry.

<i>The Sense of an Ending</i> 2011 novel by Julian Barnes

The Sense of an Ending is a 2011 novel written by British author Julian Barnes. The book is Barnes's eleventh novel written under his own name and was released on 4 August 2011 in the United Kingdom. The Sense of an Ending is narrated by a retired man named Tony Webster, who recalls how he and his clique met Adrian Finn at school and vowed to remain friends for life. When the past catches up with Tony, he reflects on the paths he and his friends have taken. In October 2011, The Sense of an Ending was awarded the Booker Prize. The following month it was nominated in the novels category at the Costa Book Awards.

<i>Bring Up the Bodies</i> Historical novel by Hilary Mantel

Bring Up the Bodies is an historical novel by Hilary Mantel, sequel to the award-winning Wolf Hall (2009), and part of a trilogy charting the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell, the powerful minister in the court of King Henry VIII. It won the 2012 Man Booker Prize and the 2012 Costa Book of the Year. The final novel in the trilogy is The Mirror & the Light (2020).

<i>Love and Summer</i> 2010 novel by William Trevor

Love and Summer is a 2009 novel written by William Trevor. It was long-listed for the Booker prize. The story takes place in the fictitious town of Rathmoye in Ireland during the 1950s. It concerns the illicit love between a photographer and the young married wife of a farmer.

<i>Life After Life</i> (novel) Novel by Kate Atkinson

Life After Life is a 2013 novel by Kate Atkinson. It is the first of two novels about the Todd family. The second, A God in Ruins, was published in 2015. Life After Life garnered acclaim from critics.

Donal Ryan is an Irish writer. He has published six novels and one short story collection. In 2016, novelist and playwright Sebastian Barry described Ryan in The Guardian as "the king of the new wave of Irish writers". All of his novels have been number one bestsellers in Ireland.

<i>H is for Hawk</i> 2014 memoir by Helen Macdonald

H is for Hawk is a 2014 memoir by British author Helen Macdonald. It won the Samuel Johnson Prize and Costa Book of the Year award, among other honours.

<i>How to Be Both</i> 2014 novel by Ali Smith

How to Be Both is a 2014 novel by Scottish author Ali Smith, first published by Hamish Hamilton. It was shortlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize and the 2015 Folio Prize. It won the 2014 Goldsmiths Prize, the Novel Award in the 2014 Costa Book Awards and the 2015 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.

<i>The Paying Guests</i> 2014 novel by Sarah Waters

The Paying Guests is a 2014 novel by Welsh author Sarah Waters. It was shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction and named "Fiction Book of the Year" by The Sunday Times who said that "this novel magnificently confirms Sarah Waters' status as an unsurpassed fictional recorder of vanished eras and hidden lives."

<i>The Secret Scripture</i> (film) 2016 Irish film

The Secret Scripture is an Irish film, directed by Jim Sheridan from a screenplay by Sheridan and Johnny Ferguson, which is based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Sebastian Barry. The film stars Vanessa Redgrave, Rooney Mara, Eric Bana, Theo James, Aidan Turner, and Jack Reynor.

<i>Days Without End</i> (novel) 2016 novel by Sebastian Barry

Days Without End is the seventh novel by Sebastian Barry and is set during the Indian Wars and American Civil War.

<i>Normal People</i> 2018 novel by Sally Rooney

Normal People is a 2018 novel by the Irish author Sally Rooney. Normal People is Rooney's second novel, published after Conversations with Friends (2017). It was first published by Faber & Faber on 30 August 2018. The book became a best-seller in the US, selling almost 64,000 copies in hardcover in its first four months of release. A critically acclaimed and Emmy nominated television adaptation of the same name aired from April 2020 on BBC Three and Hulu. A number of publications ranked it one of the best books of the 2010s.

<i>Outline</i> (novel) Novel by Rachel Cusk

Outline is a novel by Rachel Cusk, the first in a trilogy known as The Outline trilogy, which also contains the novels Transit and Kudos. It was chosen by The New York Times critics as one of the 15 remarkable books by women that are "shaping the way we read and write fiction in the 21st century." The New Yorker has called the novel "autobiographical fiction."

<i>Nora Webster</i> 2014 novel by Colm Tóibín

Nora Webster is a historical novel by Colm Tóibín, published October 7, 2014 by Scribner. The story is set in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, Ireland, and in Brooklyn, New York in the middle of the 20th century.

References

  1. 1 2 Jeffries, Stuart (29 January 2009). "Interview: Sebastian Barry reveals the secrets of his Costa prize win". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
  2. O'Hagan, Sean (27 April 2008). "Ireland's past is another country". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
  3. "The Secret Scripture". The Omnivore . Archived from the original on 18 August 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
  4. "The Secret Scripture". Book Marks . Retrieved 16 January 2024.
  5. "The Secret Scripture By Sebastian Barry". Bookmarks Magazine . Archived from the original on 27 August 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
  6. "Sebastian Barry wins 2008 Costa Book of the Year". Costa Book Awards. January 27, 2009. Archived from the original on March 26, 2009. Retrieved April 25, 2009.
  7. "Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year". Archived from the original on 10 May 2009. Retrieved 25 May 2009.
  8. Archived 5 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  9. "News | The Man Booker Prizes". Themanbookerprize.com. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
  10. "The Secret Scripture EPISODE: 2". locatetv.com. Archived from the original on 3 August 2009. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
  11. "'The Secret Scripture', Starring Jessica Chastain and Vanessa Redgrave, to Film in Ireland in June 2014 | The Irish Film & Television Network". Iftn.ie. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
  12. "Inistioge - Events". Inistioge.ie. 26 January 2015. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
  13. 1 2 "Jim Sheridan's The Secret Scripture begins shooting in Ireland | The Irish Film & Television Network". Iftn.ie. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
  14. "Theo James - Page". Interview Magazine. 29 September 2015. Retrieved 10 October 2015.