The Testament of Mary Audiobook

Quotes

• “A slim, grave, exquisitely emotional book…The Testament of Mary is a spellbinding, surprisingly reverent book.”

  — Entertainment Weekly

• “A heartfelt, powerful work.”

  — Wall Street Journal

• “Tóibín is at his lyrical best in The Testament of Mary…Originally performed as a one-woman show in Dublin, it takes its power from the surprises of its language, its almost shocking characterization, its austere refusal of consolation.”

  — New York Times Book Review

• “Dramatic and poetic…A powerful, devastating story.”

  — Washington Post

• “[An] exquisite novella…Tóibín gives a familiar story startling intimacy.”

  — New Yorker

• “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.”

  — Cleveland Plain Dealer

• “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.”

  — NPR

• “A flawless work, touching, moving, and terrifying.”

  — New Statesman (UK)

• “With this masterly novella, Tóibín has finally tackled the subject of Christianity—and he has done so with a vengeance.”

  — Sunday Times (UK)

• “Tóibín is a wonderful writer: as ever, his lyrical and moving prose is the real miracle.”

  — Observer (UK)

• “This novel is the Virgin’s version of the life of Christ. After a lifetime listening to everyone else’s versions of that life, she is angry and frustrated because they are all questionable.”

  — Irish Independent

• “There is a profound ache throughout this little character study, a steely determination coupled with an unbearable loss. 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.”

  — Scotland on Sunday

• “A poignant reimagining of the last days of Christ.”

  — Publishers Weekly

• “A stunning interpretation that is as beautiful in its presentation as it is provocative in its intention.”

  — Booklist

• “A work suffused with mystery and wonder.”

  — Kirkus Reviews

• “An ideal audiobook…Streep has an impressive ability to crest the structurally intricate sentences Tóibín has fashioned, which sometimes have the flowing, rhythmic cadences of certain passages in the Bible itself…Streep’s voice is familiar to generations of moviegoers, but its beauty as an instrument can be appreciated in this context as it often cannot be in films…Tóibín’s exquisite book [is] rendered by Streep with all its detached, quiet, consoling humanity intact.”

  — New York Times Book Review (audio review)