2015 Audie Award Finalist for Literary Fiction
From one of contemporary literature’s bestselling, critically acclaimed, and beloved authors: a “luminous” novel (Jennifer Egan, The New York Times Book Review) about a fiercely compelling young widow navigating grief, fear, and longing, and finding her own voice—“heartrendingly transcendant” (The New York Times, Janet Maslin).
Set in Wexford, Ireland, Colm Tóibín’s magnificent seventh novel introduces the formidable, memorable, and deeply moving Nora Webster. Widowed at forty, with four children and not enough money, Nora has lost the love of her life, Maurice, the man who rescued her from the stifling world to which she was born. And now she fears she may be sucked back into it. Wounded, selfish, strong-willed, clinging to secrecy in a tiny community where everyone knows your business, Nora is drowning in her own sorrow and blind to the suffering of her young sons, who have lost their father. Yet she has moments of stunning insight and empathy, and when she begins to sing again, after decades, she finds solace, engagement, a haven—herself.
Nora Webster “may actually be a perfect work of fiction” (Los Angeles Times), by a “beautiful and daring” writer (The New York Times Book Review) at the zenith of his career, able to “sneak up on readers and capture their imaginations” (USA TODAY). “Miraculous...Tóibín portrays Nora with tremendous sympathy and understanding” (Ron Charles, The Washington Post).
Download and start listening now!
“Irish actor Fiona Shaw brings her
melodic voice to Tóibín’s story of a recently widowed mother of four who is
making her way out of all-encompassing grief. Shaw maintains much the same
pitch for both male and female characters, while giving a poshy golf-club
accent to one, a huffy bumbling one to another, and an unobtrusive stammer to a
child so afflicted. Mostly, however, Shaw keeps to her own speaking style and
conveys the personalities and dispositions of the various characters through
pacing and intonation. She is marvelously adept at expressing the undercurrents—of
guardedness, suspicion, pride, one-upmanship, and nosiness—that give the novel
its richness.”
—
Washington Post (audio review)