Toibin
2014 Longlist

The Testament of Mary

artwork-image

ABOUT
THE BOOK

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-her keepers, who provide her with food and shelter and visit 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 is equally harsh on her judgement of others. This woman who 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.

 

Librarians’  Comments

A meditation on religion, gender politics and motherhood – not for the faint hearted.

A view of the events which led to the Crucifixion from the point of view of Mary as a mother.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Colm
Tóibín

Author of eleven novels, including Long Island, an Oprah’s Book Club Pick; 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. 3x shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Tóibín lives in Dublin/New York.

 

 

Author of eleven novels, including Long Island, an Oprah’s Book Club Pick; 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. 3x shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Tóibín lives in Dublin/New York.

 

 

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NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

A meditation on religion, gender politics and motherhood – not for the faint hearted.

A view of the events which led to the Crucifixion from the point of view of Mary as a mother.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
04/07/2013
Author
Publisher
Scribner

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