The Testament of Mary

By Colm Tóibín, Viking, 112pp. £12.99

FICTION: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.

Please subscribe or to continue reading.

Subscribe.

Click here to sign up to the Irish Times Book Club

More from The Irish Times

Books

Poetry: Tinteán/Hearth by Doireann Ní Ghríofa

Music

The motorcade of US President Barack Obama returns to his compound after he attended a fund raiser in support of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in Chilmark, Massachusetts yesterday. Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters

Obama’s Spotify playlist reveals an unusually emotional side

People

Brigitte Bardot in 1960. Photograph: Keystone Features/Getty Images

Off the shoulder is for all women – not just Brigitte Bardots

Opinion

Mike and Joe Flanagan: pioneering musicians to be honoured in Waterford. They emigrated from Waterford to New York in 1911 and were soon packing concert halls and dance halls, clubs and bars.

Mighty men of music – An Irishwoman’s Diary on Waterford’s Flanagan Brothers

Subscribe on iTunes

Follow on Soundcloud

Listen on Stitcher

Paul McVeigh: The Good Son isn’t about the Troubles, rather, it’s about a little boy who loves his ma, his little sister and his dog. He is going to take on anyone that threatens or hurts those he loves, no matter how big or scary, because love makes you fearless. He takes on his older brother, his Dad, other kids, the IRA. He fights the despair, the bleakness, and the violence. He fights the Troubles

The Book Club Click to join in the discussion about this month's book: The Good Son by Paul McVeigh

Hennessy short story of the month The wind that danced the tilia trees, by Michael McGlade

Most Read in Culture

Rose of Tralee contestants march in the St Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City.

Patrick Freyne’s Guide to the Rose of Tralee

A Palestinian man stands in the remains of his living room shortly after his home was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City in August 2014. Photograph: Oliver Weiken/EPA

The Arab-Israeli conflict in 10 points

Iron Age bread with Declan Ryan, Arbutus Bread and churning of butter with Peter Foynes, director, Cork Butter Museum. Photograph Tomas Tyner/UCC.

Iron Age diet: new study unearths what we ate 2,500 years ago

Louis CK: he says his teenage experiences taught him ‘a high capacity for pain’

Louis CK review: A man out of time, and an empathetic everyman

The motorcade of US President Barack Obama returns to his compound after he attended a fund raiser in support of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in Chilmark, Massachusetts yesterday. Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters

Obama’s Spotify playlist reveals an unusually emotional side

Never miss a story.

Short stories

Book reviews

Sign up to the weekly Irish Times books newsletter for features, podcasts and more

Google ID

Name

Surname

Email

I would also like to receive occasional update emails from The Irish Times

New poetry

Great reads From crosswords to great wines and the best bits from The Irish Times - Buy an Irish Times Book today

Brought to Book

Shelved: a selection of books by Irish women writers. Might some of these names figure in the final 12?

Women writers Putting Irish women writers back in the picture

Sign In

Forgot Password?

Sign Out