The Testament of Mary

Written by Colm Tóibín

Narrated by Meryl Streep

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2013

The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of The Testament of Mary, the powerful new novel by Colm Tóibín, read by Meryl Streep.

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. 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. To her he was a vulnerable figure, surrounded by men who could not be trusted, living in a time of turmoil and change.

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. 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.

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.

Praise for The Testament of Mary:

'This is a short book, but it is as dense as a diamond. 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...it takes its power from the surprise of its language, its almost shocking characterization' Mary Gordon, New York Times

Colm Tóibín was born in Ireland in 1955. He is the author of six novels, including The Blackwater Lightship, The Master, both of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and Brooklyn, which won the Costa Novel Award, and two collections of stories, Mothers and Sons and The Empty Family.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin UK Audio
• Release date: May 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9780241971086

Colm Tóibín

Colm Tóibín was born in Ireland in 1955. He is the author of eleven novels, including The Master, Brooklyn, and The Magician, and two collections of stories. He has been three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 2021, he was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature. Tóibín was appointed the Laureate for Irish Fiction 2022-2024.

Reviews for The Testament of Mary

[nkmunn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'd been wanting to read this for along time - it is a small, slim volume if you read it in hard copy, but still I saved mine for a quiet time because I knew it would be a wrenching read. I read it in a few sittings. None of them were easy, though it is a simple enough fictionalized account of Mary's possible story written in first person.

Toibin gives the reader a darkly pragmatic imagining of the trials of women, of the lengths to which people can and will go to get what they want out of someone, even in the face of silence or truthful brevity, of grief, old age, parenting and bereavement.

He gives the reader a unique chance to feel for Mary, for mothers, for anyone who's lost it all in the face of others' relentless pursuit of faith, or power, or conformity.

Worth reading for his account of Lazarus alone. It will change the way you think abt weaving a narrative out of others' accounts of the miraculous .

[wassilissa · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Dieses Buch über die heilige Maria hat ja enthusiastische Kritiken erhalten. Mich hat es nicht über die Maßen begeistert, aber ich fand es auch nicht schlecht. Maria, in der Erzählzeit des Romans mittlerweile eine alte Frau, lebt allein in der antiken Stadt Ephesos. Sie erzählt als Ich-Erzählerin die Geschehnisse um ihren Sohn. Ihr Blickwinkel zeichnet sich durch Skepsis und Enttäuschung aus. Das Buch ist faszinierend, weil es die bekannten Jesus-Geschichten in einen anderen Kontext stellt und somit anders bewertet. Doch die hier der Maria zugeschriebenen Gedanken sind durchaus überzeugend. Von Erlösung hält sie so wenig wie vom Glauben an die Wiederauferstehung. Das ist sicherlich das bestechendste an diesem Buch. Die Auferstehung des Lazarus, die Hochzeit zu Kana, praktisch jedes mit Jesus verbundene Wunder und sein ganzes Wirken wird hier durch seine Mutter entzaubert und seine Bedeutung in Frage gestellt.

[lovinglit · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It is very odd that I seek out alternative versions of bible stories seeing as I barely know the established ones. I have an interest in religion from my standpoint as an Agnostic, but have yet to read the Bible itself. I know my standpoint in itself is enough to offend some, but it ought not to as I respect the right of people to believe in whatever they like and hope the same would apply to me. So, this little book was longlisted for the Booker Prize and I grabbed it from the library hoping it would kick-start my Booker Prize reading again. It is short. Accessible. Written in conversational story-telling style. And it is powerful. In it Mary tells her version of what happened in the days before her sons death, and in the days after. She does not believe her son to be anything like as special as his disciples do, in fact she thinks he is getting too big for his boots, and that the disciples are trouble makers and tyrants. I am sure this must be a controversy to devoted Christians. But I take this story to be just another version of the events the bible describe. To me they are all stories and this one has just as much chance of being the true one as any other. It was interesting, heartfelt yet written with an emotional restraint that felt true from a narrator who had seen her son die a horrible death.

[jspilman-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The book is very good. But the audio book, read by Meryl Streep was amazing. I highly recommend it.

[deckla_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this on Easter, an appropriate day for perhaps an annual reading, since it's only 81 pages. Mary, the mother of Jesus, old and wary, is living in the care of some of the gospel writers, who urge her to tell the crucifixion story the way they want to hear it, but Mary will tell only the truth. In her account the pieta never happened, and the resurrection was a common dream held by Mary and Mary Magdalene. The voice is sorrowful, lyrical, tired, forceful, resigned.

[nospi-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

4.5 stars
Meryl Streep did a tremendous job narrating as Mary in this historical fiction account of Mary as a widow recounting the stories of her son's life. This Mary does not believe her son is the son of God and, although the apostles are caring for her does not like them at all.

It is generally the story of a mother baffled by what her son gets into and the strange company he keeps. She shares her reminisces as she shares her grief for her son's death.

Truly excellent but impossible for me to separate out how much is attributed to the brilliant Meryl Streep and how much to the text.

[bibleblaster · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A gripping, understated, provocative story of Mary, the mother of Jesus, as Mary herself may have told it. Toibin brings a great humanity to the story, and our frailty takes on a strength of its own. Mary's voice is haunting, unwavering--I expect it to stay with me for a long time. This book gives me a fresh perspective on the old, old story. Merry Christmas, indeed.

[signoraedie_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This slim novella is a different take on the usual portrayal we get of Mary the mother of Jesus. Entering into her mind and heart, the author imagines what Mary's last years in exile might have been as she agonizes over her memories of her son's torture and death and her emotions and actions during the time. He gives us a woman and a story that "might have been" even if it doesn't fit with the stories in the gospels! Food for thought.

[adrianburke_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Unconvincing, fuzzy and leaving bewilderment as to why it was written. This book is not necessary.

[annbury_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A powerful imagining of how the death of Jesus might have been experienced by his mother -- if in fact his mother was a Judean peasant woman in the first century of the Roman Empire. The tale is told by Mary in her old age, living out her life in a house in Ephesus, where two disciples try to get her to remember Jesus life and death as they want to have it remembered. Mary, however, remembers it differently. The story focusses on Jesus' last days and on his death, and Mary does not see this as a glorious event that opens the way to redemption. Or, it it does, she does not think that her son's agony was worth it. Moreover, her own humanity intrudes into the story that came to prevail -- this Mary fled Golgotha in fear for her life. What she longs for is the long ago, when her son was small and safe, and her husband was with her. Based on the spread of ratings here and on Amazon, people either like this book a lot, or dislike it intensely. For a believer, it would be hard to like. For a non-believer, it is a moving and beautifully written story of what Mary's experience -- as a mother and a woman in her time and place -- might have been like.

[iudita_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I loved the first few pages of this novella and was really looking forward to the rest of the book but unfortunately it fell a little flat for me. It was interesting but lacked the spark I loved in the introduction. Still...a decent story as it takes so little time to read.

[etxgardener · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

If you're a serious Christian, this book will probably upset you, or make you angry. Colm Toibin tells the story of the last days of Christ's life and his crucifixion through the eyes of his Mother, Mary. Recollecting the events in her old age, not far from death, Mary is full of regrets and not too impressed with the path that her son took. She does not believe that he was the son of God and thinks his disciples are "a group of misfits who will not look a woman in the eye."It's these disciples who now provide her with shelter and food, but pester her endlessly for her memories of the last days of her son's life. Mary judges herself unmercifully for leaving the scene of the crucifixion before her son dies out of fear for her own safety. She and Mary (of Mary & Martha) flee into hiding with one of the disciples. While on the run, both Marys have the same dream that Christ rises from the dead. When they relate this dream, they find that the disciples co-opt it as truth, as well as changing the actual facts of the crucifixion for their own advantage.In the end, Mary waits to die without her son, without faith (she now worships at the temple of Artemis, and without hope that there will be any redemption for herself.

[jackieblem · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Wow, expect to hear a lot about this novella. Colm Toibin, author of Brooklyn and The Empty Family, has taken on Mary, Jesus' mother in a brilliantly written but very provocative way. His story begins with Mary as an old woman living alone--Toibin's Mary did not have other children, and Joseph died before the crucifixion. She is not cooperating with the folks who are now working on the Gospels. She doesn't believe her son was the son of God, nor anything else about him being a deity, including his death being worth it. Mary loved her son, but found him to be arrogant and perhaps ill. She found his friends to be misfits, and believed the tales he told and the "miracles" attributed to him to be completely ridiculous and untrue. She is a very judgemental person, but she judges herself most harshly. She is far from being the Madonna that most of us have been taught.I found this to be fascinating and more than a little disturbing, and I am NOT a religious sort of person. I imagine that those who are will be very upset about this book. I know that it made me think about everything I've been told about her, and how (and why) I came to believe it to be true. This book could lead to a lot of amazing conversations if people will stay calm and give it a chance. I hope that they do.

[dabble58 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well. I've heard Mr. Tobin on a radio show explaining in horribly snotty tones about how he "doesn't write the words, he writes the spaces between the words."There are a lot of these in this very short and unexciting book. Best scenes were around the crucifixion time, as there was a real feeling of danger there. Rest of the book revealed nothing new and rather tread over some old safe Sunday school smarmies. Have NO idea why this was nominated for the prize, given the competition.Having read the book and been quite unmoved, and heard the author and been quite unimpressed, I'd say your time might be spent better elsewhere.

[aam_mommy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This one was ok. I didn't enjoy reading it but wanted to finish it. It's dark and confusing although I did read the majority of it in a waiting room so maybe it wasn't most conducive to absorbing it fully.

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First of course one has to suspend their belief and faith (if so inclined) and once that happens it is so incredibly easy to buy into this book. The writing is fantastic, the thoughts and feeling of Mary, the same as mother's everywhere. Looking back at when he was younger and needed her, her feelings of sadness as he left home, and lamenting the fact that he will not listen to her, not even to sane his life. Disliking his choice of friends and their influence over him .Actually quite amazing all that this little book encompasses. The poignancy and heartbreak of his crucifixion. But it is a line, one simple line at the end of the book that made this whole book a wonder to me. Not going to repeat it because I don't want to ruin it for other readers, if it even has the same impact for them. One of the quotes on the back of this book called it audacious, and I think that is a very apt description.

[eachurch-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Toibin is a marvelous writer. The Testament of Mary shows his remarkable ability to create completely believable narrators. Mary's story packs an emotional wallop. It is absolutely pitch perfect.

[lucifey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Poignant, heartbreaking, unsettling, and subtle. Well done Mr. Toibin.

[needmoreshelves · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

First of all, Meryl Streep. Even if I had not been already interested in this novel, finding out it's read by Meryl Streep? I'm in. And she was brilliant.The novel itself is a different side to the traditionally told story of the life of Jesus - what if the version passed down through history isn't quite the way it happened? What would Mary's story actually be? Toibin's Mary is not the sweet, joyful, willing handmaiden of the biblical tale - she is practical, and weary, and guarded, and scared, and the author made me believe right along with her.This is a thought-provoking read, which is sure to cause some to feel unsettled with it's re-imagining of the beloved story. It's a book I will come back to - I think it will hold up to reading again and again. Highly recommended.

[whisper1_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is not the Mary of Renaissance paintings, the Mary whose submissive positioning of head is surrounded with a glowing halo. No, this is a down to earth woman whose feet hurt from shoes unaccustomed to walking dirty paths to Jerusalem.Watching her son, purple robed commanding Lazarus to rise from the dead was a fearful sight of disbelief. Not able to fathom how her baby boy grew to this confident over inflated magician/ruler proved incomprehensible.Later, learning that Lazarus remained barely alive in a near comma state, she wondered how he,dead four days in the ground, could physically and emotionally sustain observing the other side while suddenly pulled up, up from the ground rudely to this reality. And, why any one of God would do such a cruel thing.Watching this boy turned man make a spectacle of himself, commanding vessels of water to magically turn to wine,she wondered how out of control this egotist could possibly go.Watching as before her very eyes, the crowds of these clown like idiots sneer, while the dumb founded shiver in awe, and, the circus grows ever more macabre. Stunned, she wonders why the rising of a dead person was not enough demonstrative showing off for one day! Watching the pack of people called disciples, left Mary feeling that her son was NOT the Christ, but rather an over inflated egoist whose followers were near do wells. Experience taught her that when two or more boys/men are together, there is always misbehavior. Wanting to cuff his ears and make him behave, Mary grows increasingly suspicious.Now, watching as her son stumbles through the streets, head bleeding from thorns that invade, sloped down from a cross too heavy to hold, she remains in the shadows as he is crucified.Carefully scanning the crowds, realizing that this terrible event is well organized and meticulously set in place, she carefully fled away with Mary, the sister of Martha. Hearing his screams as the long nails were driven forcefully into his hands, Mary cannot understand why her son chose this rather than listening to her pleas months ago when she realized no good could come of this, and plead with him to come home with her. Parents whose children have gone astray have felt this feeling of incongruity, the restless nights of no sleep, pondering how someone so good could have developed so badly.Alone now, at the end of her life, suspicious of all, particularly the inquisitive who want answers regarding what she knew and what she believes, quiet, always fearful and overly stubborn, Mary is left to examine what she cannot comprehend and what she truly does not understand.The writing is excellent, the story line is compelling, and provides an entirely different reference than the Mary I learned about in Sunday school.Highly recommended.

[kaymackey · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Toibin writes beautiful lyric prose, but The Testament of Mary adds little perspective or insight to the well-known gospel stories that it retells.

[edwinbcn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Europeans are divided about the attraction of American cities. Some are fascinated by the modernity of large cities, while others lament the lack of historical awareness and the cosiness of a historical city centre.The picture that emerges from Midnight in the garden of good and evil. A Savannah story puts Savannah in the same category of cities as New Orleans and San Francisco, in which Europeans who cannot be charmed by America's large sprawling metropolises.The author, John Berendt, makes quite an effort to explain how citizens of Savannah realized early in the 1960s that the preservation of the historical city centre was something worth to fight for. Not all parties involved in that effort acted out of pure altruism, and the author shows how conflicts and jarring interests in that development have led to entrenched political interests that would still be important for the story in the book.A large part of the book is spent painting up the individual characters who are either involved as primary characters in the story or on the side. The effect of these descriptions is quaint. The city centre emerges as a show-box, filled with peculiar people who are almost as quaint and old-fashioned as the historical building around them, ranging from old and fragile to the wildly exotic Chablis. The glamour of celebrity and Hollywood are sprinkled in to add to the magic.The life and career of Jim Williams, the main character are just as illustrious, and slowly Williams appears as the main focus of the story. His extravagant lifestyle, and the entourage of his house, Mercer House, filled with the exquisite antiques he deals in, set the stage for the drama to unfold. His eccentric lifestyle paves the way for readers to view his unusual relationship. Not the fact that it is a gay relationship, but the details of this somewhat peculiar relationship with Danny Hansford. While Jim Williams is described as having a relationship of a kind with Hansford, neither is specifically or exclusively described as being gay. With Williams, there seems to be a certain degree of disinterest, while Hansford is described as a more or less bisexual hustler, a victim of circumstances.The description of the murder investigation and trial are as unreal as anything, much like a farce, and all tainted by the hues of antiquity, as if it is set in the 1950s, or even further back, in the 1870s.Midnight in the garden of good and evil is based on a true murder case, but the author has transposed the story in a fairlyland setting of hyperreality or magic realism. This effect is enhanced by the voice of the gossipy omniscient narrator. The book is sometimes compared with In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, but the dreamlike quality of Midnight in the garden of good and evil has very little in common with the harsh realism of Capote's novel. In fact, the book has much more in common with another work by Berendt, namely The city of falling angels. What both books have in common is a highly personalized style in which the imagination of the author runs away with facts and conversations, transforming reality into an imagined story inside the head of the author.

[apurdie-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A short book, but very dense with beautiful prose. A really interesting and obviously apocryphal interpretation of the New Testament as narrated by Mary, mother of Jesus, turning her image of a docile, virginal saint on its head. Ultimately this is a meditation on grief and the nature of sacrifice. Mary is not comforted knowing that her son died to save the world; her child is her world.

[jerhogan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not sure if the world needs another book on the life of Jesus. Its an original slant though with a sceptical Mary worried about her son. Slight but readable.

[kate_ward-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Liked this a lot, especially as it contains many of the arguments I used to have with Religious education teachers about certain miracles.
Also, the depth of Mary's grief as well as her distrust and hatred of her son's 'followers' is stunningly portrayed.
Easy to see why this made the Booker shortlist.

[pennyanne_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A novella written from the perspective of the ageing Mary, mother of Jesus. It is a study in grief and in regret and could have been very, very good. However, I was not engaged at all by the character of Mary and, despite how short the story is, I wondered whether I could really bother to keep reading it. I did and my feelings remain mixed - such a great idea for a story, such a dull result.

[donna828 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Colm Toibin portrays Mary as a bitter aging woman who wants to be left alone with her memories of a happier time. She recalls the peace of the Sabbath with her husband and son; she recalls the later changes in her son that led to his doom. Mary resents the two men she calls misfits who take care of her and press her to remember the horror of that day that haunts her.How could a mother not wish that the unthinkable had not happened? That her beloved son had not died a cruel and bloody death impaled on a cross. Even the mother of the Son of God. The Bible tells us that Mary pondered the things she learned about her firstborn son in her heart. Toibin digs deeply to imagine what is in Mary's heart as she carries the burden of knowing that she can not change the future of the one she brought into the world. I am a Christian with an open mind and an open heart. I found nothing in this book of historical fiction that offended me. I've often wondered what Mary's thoughts were as she pondered them. I can understand her guilt at leaving Jesus on the cross and escaping to save herself. If that is indeed what happened, then I can comprehend her growing anguish as the years went by and even her willingness to take comfort in a pagan idol. In the end, she doesn't deny the truth but has these thoughts when she awakens in the night: "I want what happened not to have happened, to have taken another course. How easily it might not have happened! How easily we could have been spared! It would not have taken much. Even the thought of its possibility comes into my body now like a new freedom. It lifts the darkness and pushes away the grief..." (81)

[ireadthereforeiam · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It is very odd that I seek out alternative versions of bible stories seeing as I barely know the established ones. I have an interest in religion from my standpoint as an Agnostic, but have yet to read the Bible itself. I know my standpoint in itself is enough to offend some, but it ought not to as I respect the right of people to believe in whatever they like and hope the same would apply to me. So, this little book was longlisted for the Booker Prize and I grabbed it from the library hoping it would kick-start my Booker Prize reading again. It is short. Accessible. Written in conversational story-telling style. And it is powerful. In it Mary tells her version of what happened in the days before her sons death, and in the days after. She does not believe her son to be anything like as special as his disciples do, in fact she thinks he is getting too big for his boots, and that the disciples are trouble makers and tyrants. I am sure this must be a controversy to devoted Christians. But I take this story to be just another version of the events the bible describe. To me they are all stories and this one has just as much chance of being the true one as any other. It was interesting, heartfelt yet written with an emotional restraint that felt true from a narrator who had seen her son die a horrible death.

[nomadreader_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The basics: The premise is somewhat audacious: years after the crucifixion, Mary lives alone. She recalls the last days of her son's life, including his death. Although the disciples keep her fed and provide housing, Mary does not share their belief that her son was the Son of God.My thoughts: The writing is beautiful and haunting. Mary is such a cultural and religious icon, and Toibin rises to the challenge to imagine Mary and her inner workings in a different way. As a character, she's incredibly dynamic: "I no longer need tears and that should be a relief, but I do not seek relief, merely solitude and some grim satisfaction which comes from the certainty that I will not say anything that is not true." Mary feels emotionally tortured. She reacts the way we would expect a grieving mother to act: she mourns the loss of her son. Yet everyone around her celebrates his death. This contrast is even more vivid when Mary recalls the day of the crucifixion itself. Toibin does not shy away from the horrors of dying in that way. It's difficult to read because Toibin, through Mary and with his own hand, emphasize the humanity of Jesus.Favorite passage: "Oh, eternal life!" I replied. "Oh, everyone in the world!" I looked at both of them, their eyes hooded and something appearing dark in their faces. "Is that what it was for?" They caught one another's eye and for the first time I felt the enormity of their ambition and the innocence of their belief.The verdict: Ultimately, I appreciated The Testament of Mary more in theory than in application. As I read, I was more enamored with the idea of this novella than the novella itself. In many ways, it was a fascinating read, but it wasn't a particularly satisfying one.

[mdoris_6 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I finished this book in one fell swoop and I liked it. It is such a different slant, from a different point of view, of a story we all know so well. At university I took many art history courses so of course I came across many paintings/depictions of the Virgin Mary. Many of those portrayals are of a content, nurturing, almost flat and distant person. In this book of Toibin's we encounter a "real" mother, a mother with very major life experiences and tragedies and with all the emotions that one would encounter. She sees her son swirl in a very different and dangerous direction and looses her connection and influence with him and she also looses her connection with her own life and liberty. This would be a very hard parent situation to deal with. It was such a personal sacrifice on so many levels. The story's point of view is that she was not there as a disciple but as a mother. The writing was superb.