By doing so he gives us a Mary to identify with rather than venerate. ― TLS Beautifully crafted ― The Times Fearsomely strange, deeply thoughtful ― Guardian With deceptively modest prose, Tóibín presents the Virgin Mary's story as one of human loss rather than salvation. ― Irish Independent Toibin has created an impressive work of religious imagination.haunting, highly original. After a lifetime listening to everyone else's versions of that life, she is angry and frustrated because they are all questionable. Stuart Kelly ― Scotland on Sunday This novel is the Virgin's version of the life of Christ. Although it has some insightful things to say about religion and the period - the descriptions of the Crucifixion are visceral - it has a universal message about the nature of loss. Linda Grant ― New Statesman There is a profound ache throughout this little character study, a steely determination coupled with an unbearable loss. Naomi Alderman ― Observer This is a flawless work, touching, moving and terrifying. And Tóibín is a wonderful writer: as ever, his lyrical and moving prose is the real miracle. Robert Collins ― Sunday Times Tóibín's weary Mary, sceptical and grudging, reads as far more true and real than the saintly perpetual virgin of legend. it takes its power from the surprise of its language, its almost shocking characterization' Mary Gordon, New York Timesīeguiling and deeply intelligent.In a single passage - and in a rendition, furthermore, of one of the most famous passages of western literature - Tóibín shows how the telling and the details are all-important. It is as tragic as a Spanish pieta, but it is completely heretical.Tóibín maintains all the dignity of Mary without subscribing to the myths that have accumulated around her' Edmund White, Irish Times 'Depicting the harrowing losses and evasions that can go on between mothers and sons.Tóibín creates a reversed Pièta: he holds the mother in his arms ' Independent ' A beautiful and daring work. Praise for The Testament of Mary : 'This is a short book, but it is as dense as a diamond. 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. 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. To her he was a vulnerable figure, surrounded by men who could not be trusted, living in a time of turmoil and change. 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. From the author of Brooklyn, 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. SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2013 Colm Tóibín's The Testament of Mary is the moving story of the Virgin Mary, told by a novelist famous for writing brilliantly about the family. To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy Notice. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie Preferences, as described in the Cookie Notice. Click ‘Customise Cookies’ to decline these cookies, make more detailed choices, or learn more. Third parties use cookies for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalised ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. This includes using first- and third-party cookies, which store or access standard device information such as a unique identifier. If you agree, we’ll also use cookies to complement your shopping experience across the Amazon stores as described in our Cookie Notice. We also use these cookies to understand how customers use our services (for example, by measuring site visits) so we can make improvements. We use cookies and similar tools that are necessary to enable you to make purchases, to enhance your shopping experiences and to provide our services, as detailed in our Cookie Notice.