Sebastian Barry is the author of 13 plays, two collections of poetry, two collections of short stories, and six novels, including his latest, The Temporary Gentleman. Every volume has either won or been short listed for just about every prize there is on his side of the Atlantic.

 The Secret Scripture (2008) won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the oldest fiction award in the UK, and was named the Costas Book of the Year (an award for British and Irish writers). The French translation won Le testament casche and the Cezan Prix Litteraire. His most recent play is Andersen’s English, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s visit to Charles Dickens’s home in the Kent Marshes.

 The Temporary Gentleman is the story of Jack McNulty, an Irishman who served in the British army in World War II and later, in Accra, Ghana, chronicling his life and misfortunes as a soldier, engineer, and U.N. observer. As with all of Barry’s fiction, his characters are tied to each other through blood or marriage, and all are inspired by people from his own family. (Jack’s brother, Eneas, was the subject of The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty (1998).  In a review of The Temporary Gentleman for The Guardian, Claire Kilroy called Barry “an artist of the highest order.”
Allen Barra spoke to him recently in New York during his latest publicity tour. Continue