The Testament Of Mary

Colm Tóibín presents a striking vision of the Virgin Mary as a mother wracked with grief, who is bitterly mourning the brutal death of her son.

For Mary, her son has been lost to the world, and now, living in exile and in fear, she tries to piece together the memories of the events that led to his violent death. To her he was a vulnerable figure, surrounded by men who could not be trusted, living in a time of turmoil and change. As her life and her suffering begin to acquire the resonance of myth, Mary struggles to break the silence surrounding what she knows to have happened.

"Much of the elegance of this novella comes from its language, which is poetic but spare, much like cryptic music of the Gospels. And, as in the Gospels, understatement and implication are used to great effect … Lovely, understated and powerfully sad, The Testament of Mary finally gives the mother of Jesus a chance to speak. And, given that chance, she throws aside the blue veil of the Madonna to become wholly, gloriously human."  -  Annalisa Quinn, NPR

Colm Tóibín is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, journalist, critic and poet. He is the author of nine novels including The Master, Brooklyn, The Testament of Mary and Nora Webster and, most recently, House of Names. His work has been shortlisted for the Booker multiple times and has won both the Costa Novel Award and the Impac Award.