The Testament of Mary was published by Viking in 2012 and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize — remarkable for a novella of barely 100 pages. Toibin adapted it into a one-woman play that opened on Broadway in 2013 with Fiona Shaw.
Mary speaks in old age, living alone in Ephesus under the watchful eye of two of her son’s former followers who visit her regularly, pressing her to confirm their version of events. She refuses. Her testimony contradicts the Gospels at every point: she did not witness the Resurrection (she fled Golgotha before the end because she could not bear to watch); she does not believe her son was divine (“I was there”); she is angry at the disciples who “took him over” and transformed a carpenter’s death into a religion.
Toibin’s Mary is not blasphemous but devastated — a mother whose grief has calcified into rage. She resents the narrative that has been imposed on her experience. The disciples want her to say she saw miracles; she saw only her son’s charisma and his followers’ fanaticism. They want her to confirm the Resurrection; she knows only that she ran away.
Collecting The Testament of Mary
First edition (Viking, London, 2012): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in jacket: $15–$30
- Signed first: $30–$60