Most Popular Books by Sebastian Barry

Now a major motion picture starring Rooney Mara An epic story of family, love, and unavoidable tragedy from the two-time Booker Prize finalist and author of Old God''s Time Sebastian Barry''s novels have been hugely admired by readers and critics, and in 2005 his novel A Long Long Way was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In The Secret Scripture, Barry revisits County Sligo, Ireland, the setting for his previous three books, to tell the unforgettable story of Roseanne McNulty. Once one of the most beguiling women in Sligo, she is now a resident of Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital and nearing her hundredth year. Set against an Ireland besieged by conflict, The Secret Scripture is an engrossing tale of one woman''s life, and a poignant story of the cruelties of civil war and corrupted power. The Secret Scripture is now a film starring Rooney Mara, Eric Bana, and Vanessa Redgrave.

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE Named a Best Book of 2023 by the New Yorker, Washington Post, NPR, and Kirkus Reviews “You should be reading Sebastian Barry. [He] has a special understanding of the human heart.” —The Atlantic “A prose stylist of near-miraculous skill. . . Barry reaches deep into the messenger bag of mystery fiction and turns the whole business inside out . . . marvelous.” —The Washington Post “An unforgettable novel from one of our finest writers.” —Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain From the five-time Booker Prize nominee and 2018-2021 Laureate for Irish Fiction, a virtuosic, profound novel exploring love, memory, grief, and long-buried secrets Recently retired policeman Tom Kettle is settling into the quiet of his new home, a lean-to annexed to a Victorian castle overlooking the Irish Sea. For months he has barely seen a soul, catching only glimpses of his eccentric landlord and a nervous young mother who has moved in next door. Occasionally, fond memories return of his family: his beloved wife June and their two children, Winnie and Joe. But when two former colleagues turn up at his door with questions about a decades-old case, one which Tom never quite came to terms with, he finds himself pulled into the darkest currents of his past. A beautiful, haunting novel in which nothing is quite as it seems, Old God''s Time is about what we live through, what we live with, and what may survive of us.

A powerful new novel about divided loyalties and the realities of war from “master storyteller” (Wall Street Journal) Sebastian Barry, author of Old God''s Time In 1914, Willie Dunne, barely eighteen years old, leaves behind Dublin, his family, and the girl he plans to marry in order to enlist in the Allied forces and face the Germans on the Western Front. Once there, he encounters a horror of violence and gore he could not have imagined and sustains his spirit with only the words on the pages from home and the camaraderie of the mud-covered Irish boys who fight and die by his side. Dimly aware of the political tensions that have grown in Ireland in his absence, Willie returns on leave to find a world split and ravaged by forces closer to home. Despite the comfort he finds with his family, he knows he must rejoin his regiment and fight until the end. With grace and power, Sebastian Barry vividly renders Willie’s personal struggle as well as the overwhelming consequences of war.

OLD GOD''S TIME (MARCH 2023), SEBASTIAN BARRY''S STUNNING NEW NOVEL, AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW''As they used to say in Ireland, the devil only comes into good things.''Narrated by Lilly Bere, On Canaan''s Side opens as she mourns the loss of her grandson, Bill. The story then goes back to the moment she was forced to flee Sligo, at the end of the First World War, and follows her life through into the new world of America, a world filled with both hope and danger. At once epic and intimate, Lilly''s narrative unfurls as she tries to make sense of the sorrows and troubles of her life and of the people whose lives she has touched. Spanning nearly seven decades, it is a novel of memory, war, family-ties and love, which once again displays Sebastian Barry''s exquisite prose and gift for storytelling.

“A brave and moving novel [that] has a tender empathy with the natural world.” —Hermione Lee, The New York Review of Books From the two-time Booker Prize finalist author of Days Without End comes a dazzling companion novel about memory and identity, set in Tennessee in the aftermath of the Civil War Winona Cole, an orphaned child of the Lakota Indians, finds herself growing up in an unconventional household on a farm in west Tennessee. Raised by her adoptive parents John Cole and Thomas McNulty, whose story Barry told in his acclaimed previous novel Days Without End, she forges a life for herself beyond the violence and dispossession of her past. Tennessee is a state still riven by the bitter legacy of the Civil War, and the fragile harmony of her family is soon threatened by a further traumatic event, one which Winona struggles to confront, let alone understand. Exquisitely written, A Thousand Moons is a stirring, poignant story of love and redemption, of one woman''s journey and her determination to write her own future.

A stunning new novel from the two-time Man Booker shortlisted author of The Secret Scripture. Sebastian Barry''s latest novel, A Thousand Moons, is now available. Irishman Jack McNulty is a “temporary gentleman”—an Irishman whose commission in the British army in World War II was never permanent. Sitting in his lodgings in Accra, Ghana, in 1957, he’s writing the story of his life with desperate urgency. He cannot take one step further without examining all the extraordinary events that he has seen. A lifetime of war and world travel—as a soldier in World War II, an engineer, a UN observer—has brought him to this point. But the memory that weighs heaviest on his heart is that of the beautiful Mai Kirwan, and their tempestuous, heartbreaking marriage. Mai was once the great beauty of Sligo, a magnetic yet unstable woman who, after sharing a life with Jack, gradually slipped from his grasp. Award-winning author Sebastian Barry’s The Temporary Gentleman is the sixth book in his cycle of separate yet interconnected novels that brilliantly reimagine characters from Barry’s own family.

Now we''ve lived together in contentment, more or less, for nigh on twenty year. Like turtle doves. - In prison, I mean, for fuck''s sake, the chances of that. PJ and Christy: sworn enemies destined to share one small room for twenty years. As the two men recall the joys and torments of life outside - the childhood excursions, a deadly brawl, past loves and summer dresses - slowly they uncover the tragic events that have lead them to their cell in Montjoy. A play that explores our capacity to commit the deadliest of crimes but also our capacity for survival, reconciliation and love, ON BLUEBERRY HILL by Sebastian Barry (twice winner of the Costa Book of the Year) premiered in a Fishamble production at the Pavilion Theatre as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival and at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris in October 2017.

OLD GOD''S TIME (MARCH 2023), SEBASTIAN BARRY''S STUNNING NEW NOVEL, AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW See, love between a man and a woman, it''s - private. It happens where you never do see it. In rooms. Italy 1 - Ireland 0... The score that marked Ireland''s demoralizing exit from Italia ''90 took its toll. No more so than for Janet and Joe Brady of Parnell Street who lost far more than the match that night. Some years on, Joe and Janet reveal the intimacies of their love and the rupture of their marriage, through interconnecting monologues that also evoke their life-long love affair with Dublin city itself. Sebastian Barry''s explores with vivid tenderness the devastating effects of public and private acts of violence. This is an intimate, heroic tale of ordinary and extraordinary life on the streets of Dublin. Fishamble''s world premiere of The Pride of Parnell Street opened at the Tricycle Theatre, London, and as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival at the Tivoli Theatre, Dublin, in September 2007.

Hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as "the finest book to come out of Europe this year," The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty is acclaimed Irish playwright Sebastian Barry''s lyrical tale of a fugitive everyman. Sebastian Barry''s latest novel, Days Without End, is now available. For Eneas McNulty, a happy, innocent childhood in County Sligo in the early 1900s gives way to an Ireland wracked by violence and conflict. Unable to find work in the depressed times after World War I, Eneas joins the British-led police force, the Royal Irish Constabulary—a decision that alters the course of his life. Branded a traitor by Irish nationalists and pursued by IRA hitmen, Eneas is forced to flee his homeland, his family, and Viv, the woman he loves. His wandering terminates on the Isle of Dogs, a haven for sailors, where a lifetime of loss is redeemed by a final act of generosity. The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty is the story of a lost man and a compelling saga that illuminates Ireland''s complex history.

OLD GOD''S TIME (MARCH 2023), SEBASTIAN BARRY''S STUNNING NEW NOVEL, AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW Whistling Psyche A dark night, an old waiting room and two supposed strangers eager to reach their destinations. In the cold hours that rest between nightfall and daybreak, silent questions prompt unexpected revelations. Two souls share a passion for reform, but only one - Miss Nightingale - has been honoured. The other, Dr Barry, would never receive the same acclaim, but notoriety came after death and for a very different reason . . . Whistling Psyche premièred at the Almeida Theatre, London in May 2004. Fred and Jane explores the deep and sustaining friendship between two nuns, Anna and Beatrice, as they recall the trials and joys of religious life. ''This is Barry at his best: evocative, gentle, suffused with the beauty of the simple and the joy of turning the strange into the familiar.'' Sunday Tribune ''A rare delight. A clear-running joy.'' Sunday Independent ''A triumph in its own right.'' RTE Fred and Jane premièred at Bewley''s Cafe Theatre, Dublin in 2002.

THE STORY: From her hospital bed in 1950''s Dublin, Mai O''Hara recalls her life through morphine-induced memories and hallucinations. Dying of liver cancer caused by alcoholism, Mai reminisces on her youthful promise as a member of the Galway bourge

From his grave in the precincts of Canterbury Cathedral, Dallas Sweetman is called to give account. He tells a story of love and death, jealousy and miraculous happenings, of the divided loyalties of Protestants and Catholics in the Elizabethan Age. Before us, his judges, Dallas seeks to justify the actions of his life. But is he telling the truth? And can he be forgiven? The lost tradition of staging new plays at Canterbury Cathedral, most famously T. S. Eliot''s Murder in the Cathedral, was revived with the premiere of Sebastian Barry''s Dallas Sweetman in September 2008.

Celebrated children''s writer Hans Christian Andersen arrives, unannounced, for a stay at Gad''s Hill Place in the Kent marshes - home to Charles Dickens and his large, charismatic family. To the lonely and eccentric guest, the members of Dickens'' household seem to live a life of unreachable bliss. But with his broken English, Andersen doesn''t at first see the storms brewing within the family: undeclared passions, a son about to go to India, and a growing strangeness at the heart of Dickens'' marriage. Andersen''s English by Sebastian Barry premiered at the Theatre Royal, Bury, in February 2010 in a production by Out of Joint.

Here, now, listen, I''ll tell you a tale . . . Daffodils are in bloom as dawn breaks over the foothills of Ballycumber, ushering in hope for a new day and stirring the ghosts of a past fraught with sorrow, anguish and emptiness. In search of advice, young Evans Stafford calls at the home of friend and strong-minded traditionalist, Nicholas Farquhar. The following day, as Farquhar learns the devastating consequences of this meeting, he discovers that his memories and words are governed by a buried history; a force far greater than himself. Sebastian Barry''s Tales of Ballycumber premiered at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in September 2009.

Roseanne McNulty a cent ans ou, du moins, c''est ce qu''elle croit. Elle a passé plus de la moitié de sa vie dans l''institution psychiatrique de Roscommon, où elle écrit en cachette l''histoire de sa jeunesse, lorsqu''elle était encore belle et aimée. I''hôpital est sur le point d''être détruit, et le docteur Grene, son psychiatre, doit évaluer si Roseanne est apte ou non à réintégrer la société. Pour cela, il devra apprendre à la connaître, et revenir sur les raisons obscures de son internement. Au fil de leurs entretiens, et à travers la lecture de leurs journaux respectifs, le lecteur est plongé au coeur de l''histoire secrète de Roseanne, dont il découvrira les terribles intrications avec celle de l''Irlande. À travers le sort tragique de Roseanne et la figure odieuse d''un prêtre zélé, le père Gaunt, Sebastian Barry livre ici dans un style lumineux un roman mystérieux et entêtant.

THE STORY: The fifth play in a cycle of plays about the author''s Irish family, THE STEWARD OF CHRISTENDOM is a freely imagined portrait of the author''s great-grandfather, Thomas Dunne, the last Chief Superintendent of the Dublin Metropolitan Police

OLD GOD''S TIME (MARCH 2023), SEBASTIAN BARRY''S STUNNING NEW NOVEL, AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW Annie Dunne and her cousin Sarah live and work on a small farm in a remote and beautiful part of Wicklow in late 1950s Ireland. All about them the old green roads are being tarred, cars are being purchased, a way of life is about to disappear. Like two old rooks, they hold to their hill in Kelsha, cherishing everything. When Annie''s nephew and his wife are set to go to London to find work, their two small children, a little boy and his older sister, are brought down to spend the summer with their great-aunt. It is a strange chance for happiness for Annie. But against that happiness moves the figure of Billy Kerr, with his ambiguous attentions to Sarah, threatening to drive Annie from her last niche of safety in the world. The world of childish innocence also proves darkened and puzzling to her, and she struggles to find clear ground, clear light - to preserve her sense of love and place against these subtle forces of disquiet. A summer of adventure, pain, delight and ultimately epiphany unfolds for both the children and their elderly caretakers in this poignant and exquisitely told story of innocence, loss and reconciliation.

''The Steward of Cristendom'', one of the plays in this collection, was awarded the Writers'' Guild Award for Best Fringe Play of 1995. Barry has been credited with bringing poetic drama back to the Irish stage, and has been compared with Synge and O''Casey.

Una novel·la extraordinària sobre la memòria, l''amor, el misteri i els comptes pendents amb el passat. El policia retirat Tom Kettle gaudeix de la tranquil·litat de la seva nova llar, un annex reformat en un castell victorià a Dalkey, Irlanda, a tocar del mar. Durant mesos, no ha vist amb prou feines ningú, excepte el propietari que l''hi lloga i la inquieta mare jove que s''ha instal·lat al pis del costat. Ocasionalment, el visiten bons records de la seva família, la seva dona June i els seus fills. Fins que dos antics companys del cos de policia truquen a la porta per preguntar sobre un cas de dècades enrere. Un cas traumàtic que en Tom no ha acabat mai de superar. Explorant la memòria i els camins que obre el dolor per modelar-la, Sebastian Barry, considerat un dels escriptors més brillants en llengua anglesa, ha escrit amb Temps immemorials una novel·la bellíssima i subjugadora, l''obra mestra d''un autor excepcional al cim del seu talent.

Set in Ireland in the 1890s, the play follows its heorine in her uneasy transition from English seaside music-hall star to Anglo-Irish lady.

«En el lado de Canaán está escrita con una enorme ternura y compasión. Sebastian Barry maneja de una manera magistral la voz y el ritmo de la novela; su universo de ficción está lleno de vida, de verdades silenciosas y de una exquisita intimidad. Es un autor que sabe captar el poder y la ironía de la historia. Al evocar a Lilly Bere ha creado un personaje especialmente memorable.» Colm Tóibín «Una novela épica en su manera de avanzar pero íntima en su tono... un libro con un contenido poético deslumbrante... En el lado de Canaán debe ser celebrada por la belleza, la sabiduría y el placer que nos proporciona.» The Sunday Telegraph Cuando Lilly empieza su historia, su nieto Bill acaba de morir. Así vuelve a su juventud cuando tuvo que huir con su novio de Irlanda a Estados Unidos, amenazados ambos de muerte por el IRA. La novela, cuya acción nos golpea desde el principio, trata de Lilly, de los hombres de su vida y de su destino, a ratos terrible y a ratos sorprendente, pero también de cómo la violencia y la inseguridad del siglo XX pesan sobre la vida particular de una mujer sencilla y valiente. Sebastian Barry narra la peripecia de una resistente que sobrevive a varias tragedias... a pesar de haber nacido para disfrutar de una existencia humilde y plácida en Dublín. En el lado de Canaán es una historia épica e íntima a la vez, una novela sobre la memoria, la guerra, los lazos familiares y el amor pero, sobre todo, sobre el perdón y la compasión.

Jack McNulty is een `tijdelijke gentleman, een Ier wiens aanstelling in het Engelse leger tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog nooit vast is geweest. Ook zijn huwelijksgeluk met Mai Kirwan, het mooiste meisje van Sligo, is geen lang leven beschoren. Na vele omzwervingen, als soldaat, ingenieur en observator voor de Verenigde Naties, komt Jack uiteindelijk in Accra terecht, waar hij besluit zijn grillige levensverhaal op papier te zetten. Sebastian Barry werkt gestaag voort aan een reeks onafhankelijk van elkaar te lezen romans waarin hij één familie, zijn eigen, op de voet volgt en zo de twintigste-eeuwse geschiedenis van Ierland en de Ieren in kaart brengt. In ons taalgebied vonden al meer dan 35 000 van zijn boeken hun weg naar de lezers.