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Nora Webster
Colm Tóibín
FREE Delivery in Ireland
Description for Nora Webster
Paperback. It is the late 1960s in Ireland. Nora Webster is living in a small town, looking after her four children, trying to rebuild her life after the death of her husband. She is fiercely intelligent, at times difficult and impatient, at times kind, but she is trapped by her circumstances, and waiting for any chance which will lift her beyond them. Num Pages: 320 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 199 x 129 x 20. Weight in Grams: 224.
* * * Shortlisted for the 2014 Costa Novel Awards and the 2015 Folio Prize * * *
Nora Webster is the heartbreaking new novel from one of the greatest novelists writing today.
It is the late 1960s in Ireland. Nora Webster is living in a small town, looking after her four children, trying to rebuild her life after the death of her husband. She is fiercely intelligent, at times difficult and impatient, at times kind, but she is trapped by her circumstances, and waiting for any chance which will lift her beyond them.
Slowly, ... Read morethrough the gift of music and the power of friendship, she finds a glimmer of hope and a way of starting again. As the dynamic of the family changes, she seems both fiercely self-possessed but also a figure of great moral ambiguity, making her one of the most memorable heroines in contemporary fiction.
The portrait that is painted in the years that follow is harrowing, piercingly insightful, always tender and deeply true. Colm Tóibín's Nora is a character as resonant as Anna Karenina or Madame Bovary and Nora Webster is a novel that illuminates our own lives in a way that is rare in literature. Its humanity and compassion forge an unforgettable reading experience.
'A profoundly gifted world writer' Sebastian Barry
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Product Details
Publisher
Penguin Books Ltd
Place of Publication
London, United Kingdom
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 2 to 4 working days
About Colm Tóibín
Colm Tóibín was born in Enniscorthy in 1955. He is the author of nine novels including The Master, Brooklyn, The Testament of Mary and Nora Webster and, most recently, House of Names. His work has been shortlisted for the Booker three times, won the Costa Novel Award and the Impac Award. He has also published two collections of stories and ... Read moremany works of non-fiction. He lives in Dublin. Show Less
Reviews for Nora Webster
A fine companion piece to his acclaimed novel, Brooklyn . . . Mixing irony and nostalgia in its portrayal of a provincial Irish town. Subtle and enthralling
Sunday Times, Books of the Year
Tóibín's measured prose and close attention to emotional nuance is shown at its best here
Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year
This is ... Read morehis best yet. The ache of a widow's grief is rendered with such an unadorned intensity that you might not think the book could be entertaining too, but it is
Spectator, Books of the Year
A clear-sighted yet sympathetic portrait of a woman destabilised by grief
Financial Times, Books of the Year
So rich, so observant, so moving
Observer, Books of the Year
Tender, delicately oblique in its narration, and exquisitely well-written
The Times
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
New York Times
Beautiful and heartbreaking. It's so richly detailed and laced with such dialogue that you feel like you are living in Nora's world
Independent
Arresting. As this novel movingly proposes, there are no ordinary women and no ordinary lives
Irish Indendent
The story is so expertly crafted that it achieves a luminous intensity, which lingers long in the memory
Mail on Sunday
This novel deserves to be read as closely as Nora listens to Beethoven. It leaves you with much to ponder . . . Our bond with the Websters makes us imagine they're out there, living and longing, with fire crackling in their hearth
Guardian
[A] love story and a love letter . . . from one of Ireland's contemporary masters
Observer
This very readable novel undercuts the cliches of misery fiction . . . Tóibín's great weapon in this regard is Nora's genuine agency as a character. Both she and the novel which bears her name are defined by what has come before, this is true, both both are more interested in moving forward than being caught in the past
Irish Examiner
This novel is the real thing, 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 'Book of the Week'
A work of extraordinary achievement. In Nora Webster the slow build-up of pressure, the sense of pain experienced and barely withstood, is cumulatively almost unbearable, and the climax provides a catharsis that raises the hairs on the back of your head. The novel at once takes it place with the very best of Tóibín's fiction
Roy Foster
Irish Times
In plain and unsentimental prose, Colm Tóibín has created a character who, in her recently widowed state, must find her way through life for herself and her children. Deftly depicting the self-confined world of Nora and her boys, Tóibín provokes sympathy from the reader, but also unexpected feelings of frustation as Nora dwells on the death of a husband who cushioned her against the realities of life. As haunting as Hedda Gabler, Tóibín's latest offering a triumphant addition to his canon. The relatable voice of Nora Webster will remain with the reader long after the story has ended
The Lady
Nora Webster is a beautiful and heartbreaking portrayal of one woman's experience of depression and loneliness. But it also evokes the protagonist's struggle to find - and express - her own voice and identity. Quietly perceptive and [a] wonderfully modulated portrayal . . . It's so richly detailed and laced with such dialogue that you feel like you are living in Nora's world. Very moving
Radar
Moving, honest and truthful, this is a masterful depiction of the grief process
Psychologies
Beautifully told
Good Housekeeping
Tóibín is a master at evoking emotions with particular sensitivity . . . This is a beguiling story that envelops readers like Irish mist. The slow unhurried narrative keeps pace with Nora's grief and changing emotions. By the time she is ready to cut the last ties to her husband, Tóibín has woven the complex threads of family life into a portrait of a much-loved woman
Daily Express
A moving masterpiece. Tóibín really plumbs the heart of his characters
Women and Home
As elegantly and delicately wrought as gossamer . . . What makes Nora Webster so intriguing is the author's complex and nuanced attitudes both to the period and his characters
Metro
Once again Colm Tóibín proves he knows women perhaps better than we know ourselves in this quietly devastating portrait of a grieving widow's tortoise-like re-emergence into the world. Tóibín provides a seductive narrative, moments of levity and an entirely honest portrayal of a woman struggling to simply be herself and rebuild her life
Mariella Frostrup
Waitrose, Books of the Year
If there is a more brilliant writer than Tóibín working today, I don't know who that would be
Karen Joy Fowler
Irish Times, Books of the Year
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