The Testament of Mary: A Novel - Brossura

Toibin, Colm

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1451692382 ISBN 13: 9781451692389

Casa editrice: Scribner, 2014

Riassunto

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, who are her keepers. 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 her judgment of others is equally harsh. This woman whom 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.

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Recensione:

“Tóibín is at his lyrical best in The Testament of Mary, a beautiful and daring work...it takes its power from the surprises of its language, its almost shocking characterization, its austere refusal of consolation.” (Mary Gordon The New York Times Book Review)

“[An] exquisite novella...Tóibín gives a familiar story startling intimacy.” (The New Yorker)

“A heartfelt, powerful work.” (Sam Sacks The Wall Street Journal)

“Dramatic and poetic...A powerful, devastating story.” (Ron Charles The Washington Post)

“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)

“Mary—silent, obedient, observant—has echoed down two millennia, cementing a potent ideal in the Western imagination. Now the masterful Irish writer Colm Tóibín puts a jackhammer to the cozy, safe, Christmas-card version in The Testament of Mary.” (Karen R. Long Cleveland Plain Dealer)

“A slim, grave, exquisitely emotional book...The Testament of Mary is a spellbinding, surprisingly reverent book.” (Jeff Giles Entertainment Weekly)

“Tóibín applies a Joycean ruthlessness...Imagining himself into Mary’s interior life is his boldest jump yet.” (Hermione Lee The New York Review of Books)

“Tóibín’s intimate approach make Mary feel more credible and human...The result, The Testament of Mary, feels true.” (Claire Cameron The Millions)

“Tóibín suffuses the story with a sense of mystery and makes the reader feel (perhaps as never before) the tragedy of the crucifixion.” (Macy Halford Buzzfeed)

L'autore:

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.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Scribner
• Data di pubblicazione: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1451692382
• ISBN 13: 9781451692389
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 86