Sebastian Barry

Sebastian Barry is one of Ireland's most celebrated living writers — a novelist, playwright, and poet whose lyrical, emotionally devastating fiction explores Irish history through the lives of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary times. Born in Dublin in 1955, he studied English and Latin at Trinity College Dublin. He has served as Laureate for Irish Fiction and his plays have been performed at the Abbey Theatre, the National Theatre, and on Broadway. Barry's novels include A Long Long Way (shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize), The Secret Scripture (winner of the Costa Book of the Year and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize), Days Without End, A Thousand Moons, and Old God's Time. A Long Long Way follows a young Dublin man serving in the trenches of the First World War while revolution brews at home — exploring the forgotten Irish soldiers who fought for Britain and were written out of nationalist history. His audiobooks and books offer listeners and readers some of the most beautiful prose in contemporary fiction — novels that illuminate forgotten lives with compassion, grace, and language of extraordinary lyrical power.