A SUNDAY TIMES TOP 100 NOVEL OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2008
Nearing her one-hundredth birthday, Roseanne McNulty 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, and their relationship intensifies and complicates. Told through their respective journals, the story that emerges 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's changing character and the story of a life blighted by terrible mistreatment and ignorance, and yet marked still by love and passion and hope.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Roseanne McNulty may (or may not) be on the point of nearing her 100th birthday -- but there is little certainty about this fact. In her twilight years, her destiny is uncertain, as the Roscommon Mental Hospital -- her home for so many years of her life -- is on the point of closing. As the fateful hour approaches, Roseanne spends her time of talking to her psychiatrist of many years, Dr Grene. The relationship between the two is strangely interdependent, and the doctor is also attempting to come to terms with the death of his wife. As we learn more about the two principal protagonists, we are presented with a rich and subtle picture of human relationships -- and the (often unintentional) damages that we all do to each other.
The form of the book consists of the separate journals of Roseanne and Dr Grene, and we gradually learn about Roseanne’s family in Sligo in the 1930s. What emergence is a poignant personal history; it is also a subtly ambitious picture of nothing less than the Irish psyche at a particular point in its history. There are echoes here of another great Irish chronicler of the human condition, William Trevor, and The Secret Scripture is no worse for that. --Barry Forshaw
'People persist with ordinary life, because there is no other sort of life." Yet ordinary lives meander and circle and overflow and sometimes turn upside down; none of which can even begin to give a flavour of the breathtaking sinuosity of Sebastian Barry's fourth novel. It is narrated by Roseanne McNulty, who has been in a mental hospital for much of her life, and by her psychiatrist Dr Grene. Roseanne is ancient - maybe 100, nobody knows - and her doctor is distracted, both by grief at the death of his wife and alarm at the imminent closure of his asylum. They are, as the saying has it, a right pair; and they carry our interest and empathy as the storyline shifts and twists along the byways of Irish history and the ancient, secret paths of the human mind. The bookies' favourite for last year's Man Booker Prize, The Secret Scripture has just won the overall 2008 Costa Book of the Year award. "Exquisite...mesmerising...memorable...unique". Take your pick of the adjectives; just don't be put off by the hype. This is a great book by, arguably, our greatest living novelist.'
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Nearing her one-hundredth birthday, Roseanne McNulty 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, and their relationship intensifies and complicates. Told through their respective journals, the story that emerges 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's changing character and the story of a life blighted by terrible mistreatment and ignorance, and yet marked still by love and passion and hope. Winner of the Costa Book of the Year 2008, over 600,000 copies sold in Faber editions to date. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780571323951
Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9780571323951
Book Description Condition: New. pp. 320. Seller Inventory # 373678986
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. BRAND NEW ** SUPER FAST SHIPPING FROM UK WAREHOUSE ** 30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. Seller Inventory # 9780571323951-GDR
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 320 pages. 7.80x5.08x0.79 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __0571323952
Book Description Condition: New. Nearing her one-hundredth birthday, Roseanne McNulty 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, and their relationship intensifies and complicates. Num Pages: 320 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 199 x 130 x 21. Weight in Grams: 256. Signed by the author. 2015. Paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # 9780571323951
Book Description Condition: New. In. Seller Inventory # ria9780571323951_new
Book Description Condition: New. Nearing her one-hundredth birthday, Roseanne McNulty 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, and their relationship intensifies and complicates. Num Pages: 320 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 199 x 130 x 21. Weight in Grams: 256. Signed by the author. 2015. Paperback. . . . . Seller Inventory # 9780571323951
Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. Nearing her one-hundredth birthday, Roseanne McNulty faces an uncertain future, as the Roscommon Regional Mental hospital where she's spent the best part of her adult life prepares for closure. Seller Inventory # B9780571323951