Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital is due for demolition. It is Dr Grene’s role to assess which of the patients should be transferred to the new, but much smaller hospital, and which of them should be allowed to return to their homes, if they still have one. The patient who troubles him most is Roseanne. She is likely to be 100 years old (no one is completely sure), and has been in the hospital for many years, at least 50, but again, no one is entirely sure.

This is a beautifully written story, with enchanting characters. Full of sadness, tinged with hope, but also despair. A haunting tale of love and loss.

Thank you NetGalley.

I have just finished reading The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry, a copy gratefully received from @netgalley

The story is told between Roseanne, a 100 year old patient in a mental institution and Dr Grene, her psychiatrist. While Roseann is reluctant to answer Dr Green’s questions about her past, she is writing her memoirs and hiding them under her floorboard - her secret scripture.
This book is full of both grace and sadness as Roseanne describes her story of loss. Wrongfully sent to an institution by an interfering priest, adamant that her beauty is her flaw, Roseanne accepts her fate but Dr Grene is determined to uncover the truth.

This book is so beautifully written. Sebastian Barry was inspired after a drive through Sligo, Ireland, with his mother who pointed out an old hut and said a woman lived in there before being put in a mental asylum- all I know is she was very beautiful.
My only reason for four stars is the ending wasn’t how I wanted it to be and I did predict the outcome about five chapters from the end. I wholeheartedly recommend this book though and I look forward to his new book coming out next year.
On a final note, I didn’t realise that this book is book two of a trilogy but I read it as a stand-alone and didn’t feel it mattered that I hadn’t read the first one.

I have never read anything by Sebastian Barry before and I really don't know why. It is definitely something I will be remedying.
This book is so beautifully written and it moved me more than I could ever put into words. I have Irish ancestry and I remember talking to my nanny about periods like this in history and she wouldn't talk about it very much at all and said that it is something that is rareky spoken about and after reading this book and researching it more on my own, I can understand why.
It is haunting and chilling in its own unique way and it will stay with me for a long long time.

I loved this book the first time around and I enjoyed it so much more upon reading for a second time. Sebastian Barry is a master at his craft. This story is based on such a difficult time in Ireland's history but he tells it with tenderness and beauty.

I enjoy Sebastian Barry's books and love his writing and use of words. This story of Roseanne and Dr Grene is moving and horrifying in equal measure. The history of Irish bigotry and religious dominance is difficult to read about, let alone understand. A very good read.

Beautifully and exquisitely written about love and loss. Set in Ireland, a 100 year old woman who has been in a mental hospital for most of her life is telling the true story of her life.

Melancholy and lyrical, the story of Rose and Sligo is both a harrowing and captivating read. I love how Sebastian Barry writes, and will definitely look for more of his work.

I found it hard to get going with this novel - more to do with me than it, for sure, because once the momentum started, I found this a fascinating story, told in a series of journals, made from the idea of consequences and accidents of birth. The imagery is stark and highly effective, and when I say 'harrowing' I don't mean in a bad way, I mean as a result of particularly good use of narrative elements. This is about love, memory, place, pain and loss told through poetic prose. It'll stay with you because, I think, it aims to be thought-provoking, and it is. Recommended.

My first Sebastian Barry read and I have to say I enjoyed it hugely.
Told in diary form from both a 100 year female patient in a "mental hospital" in Sligo Ireland and her psychiatrist, this book touches on many subjects and is both heartbreaking and uplifting in equal measures.

It touches on the civil war, the influence of the catholic church and the treatment of women in those times but really its about the two main protagonists and their relationship with each other and indeed themselves.

Remarkably descriptive and sometimes poetic writing, it will put you firmly in that little town in Sligo in both the past and the present.

A slow burner but never boring, this is an easy recommendation for me.

Thanks to the publisher for providing the review copy through Negalley.

This is a beautifully written, haunting and profoundly moving novel from Sebastian Barry, an eye opening unofficial history of Ireland, the political turbulence, its misogyny, the injustice, ignorance, and a damning indictment of the Catholic Church, its abuse of power and judgementalism. The powerful and heartbreaking narrative, whilst somehow retaining hope, moves back and forth in time, focusing on the nature of memory, that asks the question, what is truth? 100 year old Roseanne McNulty has been incarcerated in Roscommon psychiatric hospital for most of her life, but it is facing closure, and it has fallen to Dr Grene to evaluate whether she really should have been committed in the first place. The understated and captivating story shifts from the secret hidden journal written by Roseanne to that of Dr Grene's journal, the two providing two very different perspectives as Roseanne's tragic truth is slowly unveiled, revealing how she came to end up at the asylum.

This is an extraordinary, thoughtful and engaging book that reflects Ireland's troubled history, it is of its time, of family, religion, women, love, loss and grief. If you have not yet got round to reading this, I strongly urge you to do so. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Faber and Faber.

The Secret Scripture is the seventh stand-alone novel by Irish author, Sebastian Barry. Against the background of the imminent closure of an Irish mental facility, an ageing psychiatrist reviews his remaining patients for suitability to re-enter the community at large. Dr William Grene, Senior Pyschiatrist at Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital, is particularly concerned about hundred-year-old Roseanne McNulty, suspecting that her sectioning some sixty-plus years ago, like many others of that era, may have been based on social convenience rather than psychiatric need.

Barry sets up his story as twin narrations: “Dr Grene’s Commonplace Book” is meant to contain a professional account of the last days of the hospital, but Will includes his personal observations about Roseanne McNulty and the results of his investigations into her admission as well as events, past and present, in his own life; “Roseanne’s Testimony of Herself” is a secret memoir that Roseanne writes and keeps hidden, detailing events in her life leading up to her sectioning, along with present day happenings. This novel has a marvellous cast of characters, credible dialogue and a brilliant plot.

Astute readers will have twigged to the who and what of the mystery half-way through the novel, but this in no way reduces the enjoyment or the compulsion to continue reading Barry’s beautiful prose for the how and why. Barry touches on many topics including the chequered history of mental institutions, the Irish Civil War, the power of the Catholic Church in 20th century Ireland and whether there is such a thing as factual truth (or does it all depend on the accuracy of a person’s memory?). This was a great read and I will be looking for the companion works to this one that Barry has written: The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty, and Our Lady of Sligo.
This unbiased review is from a copy provided by NetGalley and Faber & Faber

Roseanne is a hundred years old. Living out the last few days of her life in an Irish mental hospital, she starts to write down an account of her life. From time to time she is visited by Dr Grene, and as their two sad stories unfold in tandem, many sad secrets are exposed. Slowly we learn how the extreme and polarized religious society in Ireland at the time had catastrophic consequences for Roseanne and the few people she ever had the opportunity to love.
Roseanne's description of life in Ireland in the 1930's is touching, vulnerable and sweet. She has a charming voice, both childlike and wise. Her passions and tragedies are heartbreaking, but a prevailing sense of peace lets the reader get immersed in her story without too much discomfort. Dr Grene provides a more modern and practical voice, but no less sensitive than Roseanne's own.
This book is slow, introspective, melancholy and wistful. It might take a little effort to get into, and the absolute authority of the Catholic faith might feel a little unfamiliar and strange. But it is hard not to grow fond of Rosanne and Dr Grene, or fall under the spell of this sad little book.