Mary

Mary is the main character in The Testament of Mary by Irish writer Colm Toibin.

She is the mother of Jesus, a man who is killed by crucifixion because he claimed to be the Son of God.

Mary lives with the horror of her son’s crucifixion and the constant questions of his followers who are trying to write about his life. She senses that the men are trying to write a version of the events that is not quite true because they pressure her to answer their questions in a particular way or act as if they are frustrated when her answers do not fit their specifications.

Although Mary does not intentionally thwart the men’s questions, she refuses to answer with anything but the truth. She believes the truth to be only what she has personally seen or experienced.

At the end of the novel, the...