| The Testament of Mary Contributor(s): Toibin, Colm (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 1451688385 ISBN-13: 9781451688382 Publisher: Scribner Book Company OUR PRICE: $17.99 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: November 2012 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Religious - General - Fiction | Literary - Fiction | Christian - Historical |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 2012007578 |
| Physical Information: 0.6" H x 5.9" W x 8.5" (0.55 lbs) 96 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: 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--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. |
Contributor Bio(s): Toibin, Colm: - Colm Tóibín is the author of nine novels, including The Blackwater Lightship; 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 Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know, a look at three nineteenth-century Irish authors. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University. Three times shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Tóibín lives in Dublin and New York. |