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Book Summary and Reviews of The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin

The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin

The Testament of Mary

by Colm Toibin

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  • Nov 2012, 96 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Provocative, haunting and indelible, Colm Tóibín's portrait of Mary presents her as a solitary older woman still seeking to understand the events that become the narrative of the New Testament and the foundation of Christianity.

In the ancient town of Ephesus, Mary lives alone, years after her son's crucifixion. She has no interest in collaborating with the authors of the Gospel. They are her keepers, providing her with food and shelter and visiting her regularly. She does not agree that her son is the Son of God; nor that his death was "worth it"; nor that the "group of misfits he gathered around him, men who could not look a woman in the eye," were holy disciples.

Mary judges herself ruthlessly (she did not stay at the foot of the Cross until her son died - she fled, to save herself), and her judgment of others is equally harsh. This woman whom we know from centuries of paintings and scripture as the docile, loving, silent, long-suffering, obedient, worshipful mother of Christ becomes a tragic heroine with the relentless eloquence of Electra or Medea or Antigone. Tóibín's tour de force of imagination and language is a portrait so vivid and convincing that our image of Mary will be forever transformed.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Poigniant...This beautiful novella turns on who or what Mary should believe about her son's life and death - and on a mother's grief." - Publishers Weekly

"Starred Review. A stunning interpretation that is as beautiful in its presentation as it is provocative in its intention." - Booklist

"Starred Review. A novella that builds to a provocative climax, one that is as spiritually profound as its prose is plainspoken...A work suffused with mystery and wonder." - Kirkus Reviews

This information about The Testament of Mary was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Diane S.

The Testament
First of course one has to suspend their belief and faith (if so inclined) and once that happens it is so incredibly easy to buy into this book. The writing is fantastic, the thoughts and feeling of Mary, the same as mother's everywhere. Looking back at when he was younger and needed her, her feelings of sadness as he left home, and lamenting the fact that he will not listen to her, not even to sane his life. Disliking his choice of friends and their influence over him .Actually quite amazing all that this little book encompasses. The poignancy and heartbreak of his crucifixion. But it is a line, one simple line at the end of the book that made this whole book a wonder to me. Not going to repeat it because I don't want to ruin it for other readers, if it even has the same impact for them. One of the quotes on the back of this book called it audacious, and I think that is a very apt description.

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Author Information

Colm Toibin Author Biography

Photo: Bruce Weber

Colm Tóibín is the author of eleven novels, including Long Island; The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; The Testament of Mary; and Nora Webster; as well as two story collections and several books of criticism. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and has been named as the Laureate for Irish Fiction for 2022–2024 by the Arts Council of Ireland. Three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Tóibín lives in Dublin and New York.

Link to Colm Toibin's Website

Name Pronunciation
Colm Toibin: CULL-um Toe-BEAN

Other books by Colm Toibin at BookBrowse
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