Sebastian Barry

One of Ireland’s finest contemporary authors, Sebastian Barry published his debut novel in 1982 but it was as a poet and playwright that he first achieved critical acclaim. Throughout the 1990s Barry penned a string of lauded plays, peaking in 1995 with the multi-award winning The Steward of Christendom. Although he has continued to write for the stage, Barry is now best known for his novels, finding mainstream success in 2005 with A Long, Long Way which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. His next novel, 2008’s The Secret Scripture, made the Booker shortlist again but was crowned Costa Book of the Year – a feat that Barry repeated in 2017 with Days Without End. His latest novel, A Thousand Moons, is a companion piece to Days Without End and was published in March 2020.