The Testament of Mary

Shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize, Colm Tóibín's provocative, haunting, and indelible 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, who are her keepers. 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.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Published: 11/13/2012
ISBN: 9781451688382
Pages: 96
Weight: 0.55lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.90w x 0.60d
Award: Man Booker Prize - Nominee

Review Citations: Library Journal 06/15/2012 pg. 48
Publishers Weekly 07/23/2012 pg. 29
Booklist 09/01/2012 pg. 56
Library Journal 09/01/2012 pg. 95
Kirkus Reviews 09/15/2012
New York Times Book Review 11/11/2012 pg. 14
New York Times Book Review 11/18/2012 pg. 26
NY Times Notable Bks of Year 12/02/2012 pg. 25
Entertainment Weekly 12/14/2012 pg. 79
New Yorker (The) 12/17/2012 pg. 81
New York Review of Books 01/10/2013 pg. 43
Booklist Editors Choice/Adult 01/01/2013 pg. 9
New York Times Book Review 02/09/2014 pg. 16