The Testament of Mary
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4.1 • 58 Ratings
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2013
From the author of Brooklyn comes a short, powerful novel about one of the most famous mothers in history.
In a voice that is both tender and filled with rage, The Testament of Mary tells the story of a cataclysmic event which led to an overpowering grief. 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 her son's brutal 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. In her effort to tell the truth in all its gnarled complexity, she slowly emerges as a figure of immense moral stature as well as a woman from history rendered now as fully human.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Mesmerising from start to finish, The Testament of Mary is perhaps the shortest novel ever to be nominated for the prestigious Man Booker Prize. Narrated in the first person—and acrobatically shifting between urgent fury and listless despair—this book is Mary’s stream-of-consciousness account of the events culminating in her beloved son’s crucifixion. “Memory fills my body as much as blood and bones”, says Mary, who’s living out her final years in exile. She’s compelled to share her remembrances as faithfully as possible, refusing to yield to the will of her minders, who are intent on crafting a story about the son of God. Irish novelist Colm Tóibín has accomplished a breathtaking feat, portraying one of history’s most venerated figures as a flesh-and-blood woman. While the nature of Mary’s loss is truly horrific, the anguish she experienced as her son steadily drifted further away will be familiar to every parent. “Time created the man who sat beside me...hearing no one, a man filled with power, a power that seemed to have no memory of years before, when he needed...my voice to soothe him to sleep.”
Customer Reviews
Worth the read
An interesting take, food for thought. A lot of superfluous plot which is not very well developed leading to ambiguity