So it should have been perfect. But the chill of an evaporated classicism drove my heart from that book. Sebastian Barry's latest novel, A Thousand Moons, is published by Faber on March 19 at £18.99.

It literally rocks your head back, with its sudden truth and its originality. Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture is one of the 20 titles for World Book Night 2013, www.worldbooknight.org.

Irish author and playwright Sebastian Barry has won the £25,000 Costa Book of the Year Award for his novel The Secret Scripture, the judges said - even though they disliked the ending.