A mental hospital in modern-day Ireland: Roseanne McNulty, nearing 100, begins a secret journal relating the events which through ignorance and religious bigotry led to her incarceration. Meanwhile, her psychiatrist's attempts to uncover her history reveal contradictions in her story illustrating how memory perhaps unwittingly sifts and refracts the truth. Lyrically written, grim and shocking, it is also an affirmation of the power of hope and love. I cannot recommend it too highly.
*Costa Book of the Year 2008
(Jenny Baker - bwl 53 September 2009 ) |
