BookPalaver: The Secret Scripture

A couple of years ago I raved about the novel A Long, Long Way by the extraordinary Irish author Sebastian Barry. His latest book, The Secret Scripture, would also be an excellent gift for fiction lovers on your Christmas list. The story alternates between the memoirs of Roseanne McNulty, 100 years old and living in a mental asylum in the west of Ireland, and of the doctor who treats her. This is a serious Irish novel, so it should come as no surprise that the story Roseanne tells is tragic and, at times, profoundly sad. At one point she recounts an event that her father unwittingly precipitated that is so horrible I thought I don't know how a human being could possibly go on living after that. I turned the page, and it got worse. Merry Christmas!

But really, it's an engaging and beautifully told story. It deals with history, and the unreliability of memory. It would be a good choice for book clubs, because it's the kind of book you want to mull over with someone the moment you finish it. (Can you mull with someone, or is it a solitary act?) It's in the Politics and Prose holiday newsletter, which means members can buy it for 20% off through the end of the year.

Comments

[mysterywriter]

Loved, loved, loved this book. I would suggest that readers should also buy The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty, also by Sebastian, to get even more of the story, either before or after reading The Secret Scripture.