The Secret Scripture by Sébastien Barry Book Review

 The Secret Scripture 

By Sébastien Barry

Year Published: 2008

Page count : 312 

Medium used : Paperback 

Genre : Suspense, Fiction, Mental Health, WW2.

Rating : 3.5/5 ⭐⭐⭐🖖

I am confounded by this book. What the hell is going on. What the heck is the truth and what ain't? There are two versions to an old woman's past - one is too fantastic to believe and the other too contradictory to her memories that it must be a convenient and false fabrication. 

A young girl,Roseanne,is made to suffer for the mistakes of her parents - a father whom she adored but unknown to herself, is a nightmare policeman for his own countrymen, her eerie,silent and withdrawn mother who is unquestionably committed to a mental asylum like the girl herself would later be. Roseanne is married to a man whom she deeply loves, Tom McNealty, who later annuls their marriage so that he could marry again on the pretext that she is a "nymphomaniac". She has no support, she has no proof. She has literally no one on the outside or inside to help her. She becomes pregnant, gets kicked off by her in laws and ends up in the mental asylum where she spends over 60 years of her sheltered and unconventional life. 

Many of the historical truths of her past come out when a psychiatrist at her asylum, a Dr.Greene, is tasked with the duty of releasing or retaining some of these patients at the hospital. Roseanne is non-comittal and silent about her history but he digs into it. He also finds her journal which greatly helps. Together, they put the pieces of the puzzle together and while initially, there felt like a supernatural angle to the story..I felt it ended on a normal note only. I am a bit underwhelmed by all this. Would have liked to see some time traveler or a mythical figure taking the lethargic form and shape of Roseanne and Dr.Greene.