Nora Webster - Hardcover

"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

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

"[A] quietly moving study of a complex character and her ambiguous feelings toward the web of family and neighbors surrounding her in the small town of Enniscorthy.... All his books share precise, restrained prose, which can, in its simplicity, reach elegance."--Maya Muir, The Portland Oregonian

"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

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

"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

"Miraculous... a strikingly restrained novel about a woman awakening from grief and discovering her own space, her own will...extraordinary... [Toibin] portrays Nora with tremendous sympathy and understanding."--Ron Charles, The Washington Post

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.