Narratives of Healing in Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture (2008)

Sebastian Barry’s novel The Secret Scripture (2008) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize before being named the 2008 Costa Book of Year and winning the Irish Book Awards Best Novel, the Independent Booksellers Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. The novel is an exquisite example of trauma narrative in Irish recent fiction. Almost one hundred years old and still in the mental hospital where she was committed as a young woman, Roseanne revisits the tragedies and passions of her life through her secret journal. Raised in rural Ireland in the 1930s, her life is marked by civil war and a troubled family life. When she marries Tom McNulty, she believes she has found love and security, but her dreams are shattered. Through her journal and that of the doctor in charge of her, the reader is gradually revealed how the process of trauma healing could be achieved.