Nora Webster - Hardcover

Toibin, Colm

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1439138338 ISBN 13: 9781439138335

Publisher: Scribner Book Company, 2014

Synopsis

From one of contemporary literature's bestselling, critically acclaimed and beloved authors, the magnificent, instant New York Times bestselling novel set in Ireland, about a fiercely compelling young widow and mother of four, navigating grief and fear, struggling for hope.

Set in Wexford, Ireland, Colm Tóibín's superb 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 drawn back into it. Wounded, 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 empathy and kindness, and when she begins to sing again, after decades, she finds solace, engagement, a haven--herself.

Nora Webster is a masterpiece in character study by a writer at the zenith of his career, "beautiful and daring" (The New York Times Book Review) and able to "sneak up on readers and capture their imaginations" (USA TODAY). In Nora Webster, Tóibín has created a character as iconic, engaging and memorable as Madame Bovary or Hedda Gabler.

About this title

Review:

"A deeply moving portrait of the flowering of a self-liberated woman, Nora Webster tells the story of all the invisible battles the heart faces every day."--Buzzy Jackson, Boston Globe

"Fascinating... Revelatory... More thoughtful than Emma Bovary and less self-destructive, in the end far and away a better parent than the doomed Anna Karenina for all the latter's dramatic posturing, Nora Webster is easily as memorable as either--and far more believable. To say more would spoil a masterful-- and unforgettable--novel."--Betsy Burton "NPR "

"Toibin artfully shows us a Nora unmoored...This quiet, wrenching novel conceals considerable human turbulence beneath its placid surface. So Toibin has learned well from Henry James...In many ways, Nora Webster would bring an admiring smile to the Master's lips."--Daniel Dyer, Cleveland Plain Dealer

"A high-wire act of an eighth novel... Toibin's radical restraint elevates what might have been a familiar tale of grief and survival into a realm of heightened inquiry. The result is a luminous, elliptical novel in which everyday life manages, in moments, to approach the mystical... There is much about Nora Webster that we never know. And her very mystery is what makes her regeneration, when it comes, feel universal."--Jennifer Egan, The New York Times Book Review

"[Nora Webster] may actually be a perfect work of fiction... There is no pyrotechny in the writing -- just compassion and shrewd insight. Which is where Toibin's brilliance lies... People call Toibin a beautiful writer because they don't know how otherwise to classify such a delicate talent, such empathic simplicity. Some mysteries can't be deciphered by criticism. Colm Toibin is not a beautiful writer, he's merely a great one."--Darin Strauss, The Los Angeles Times

"The Ireland of four decades ago is beautifully evoked... Completely absorbing [and] remarkably heart-affecting."--Booklist (starred review)

"Toibin's restraint, sly humor and gentle prose cadence echo those of another Irish master, William Trevor. So does his affection for his characters... How Nora chooses to make her voice heard and how her children find ways to express their own pain provide Nora Webster's plot and pleasure...a so-called average life can make for a thrilling read...Toibin presents one woman's life keenly observed and honored with compassion. With Enniscorthy, he also creates a town, constrained and forever behind the times though it is, that feels like the whole world."--The Miami Herald

"Each paragraph of these pages rewards rereading, so deftly are they composed, and so full of pathos and insight."--Claud Peck, The Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Heart-rendingly transcendent... Mr. Toibin's prose has an elegant, visceral simplicity."--Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"Compelling...an emotionally satisfying read...powerful."--The Associated Press

From the Back Cover:

'Rare and tremendous . . . It does everything we ought to ask of a great novel: that it respond to the fullness of our lives, be as large as life itself' Tessa Hadley, Guardian

Nora Webster is recently widowed. Unmoored by her sudden loss and the needs of her children whom she now must raise alone, she faces a future that was never meant to be. But within Nora is a strength - a quiet resolve not to succumb to others' expectations and, through the discovery of music and the gift of friendship, she may just find a way to live again.

'Beautiful and heartbreaking. So richly detailed . . . you feel like you are living in Nora's world' Independent

'Read it if you relish fiction which is exquisitely written' The Times

'Quietly but overwhelmingly affecting' Spectator

'Brims with vitality, brought alive with outstanding vividness, enthralling' Sunday Times

'If you loved Brooklyn then you'll love this . . . as elegant and delicately wrought as gossamer' Metro

About this edition

• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1439138338
• ISBN 13: 9781439138335
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384