The Secret Scripture is another fantastic book by the Irish writer, Sebastian Barry. It's the story of Roseanne McNulty, a 100-year-old Protestant woman who has lived in the Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital for half her life, perhaps more. She decides to write an autobiography, which is discovered at the turn of the 21st century by her psychiatrist, Dr. Grene. The narrative voice shifts between the autobiography and Grene's account; Grene must decide if she is to be transfered to another hospital or let free.
A little math shows that the heart of the story is in the 1920s, when the Troubles took place, being of course the Irish Civil War and its aftermath. Roseanne's family, being Protestant in the mostly Catholic borough of Sligo, face hardships and loss, as you might well expect, but what I can't get over is how author Sebastian Barry manages to write an epic story in just 300 pages, as he does in the other novel of his I've read, Days Without End. The Secret Scripture was made into a movie in 2016.
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