Nora Webster: a novel

*Starred Review* The Ireland of four decades ago is beautifully evoked through events in the three-year widowhood of fortysomething Nora Webster, left by the early death of her beloved Maurice with four children and scarcely enough money to cover the family expenses. A character-portrait novel in the full definition of that type which means as meticulous in detail and as sound in psychological understanding as a biography Irishman Toibin's latest rich novel, following the provocative Testament of Mary (2012), is self-assured in its authenticity, daring in the male author's presumption of inhabiting a female protagonist, and all this is achieved through prose at once alive and understated. Nora, as witnessed by not only her offspring but also her sisters, her other relatives, and many neighbors both supportive and trying, must step out of the rather cocoon-like world she and her husband had created for themselves in the small city of Wexford. The problem for her was that she was on her own now and that she had no idea how to live. Toibin's leisurely paced but completely absorbing narrative follows Nora's rebuilding, restoration, and reaffirmation to the point where she can put the memory of Maurice to the side and create a new life. A remarkably heart-affecting story. High Demand Backstory: National advertising, a six-city author tour, an author video, and TV and print and radio publicity are all part of the publisher's campaign behind Toibin's latest.--Hooper, Brad Copyright 2014 Booklist

Toibin's 10th novel offers a compelling portrait of an Irish woman for whom fate has prescribed loneliness. Widowed at 40, with four children and shaky finances, Nora rejects condolences and pity. She is so intent on making her children's lives normal that she ignores their need to mourn as well. In the wake of her husband's terminal illness, she instills fear and bewilderment in her two younger boys; they have nightmares, and one begins to stutter. The two girls, away at school, are resentful as well. Nora is sometimes obtuse about the choices she makes. She is short-tempered and sharp-tongued, and she makes significant mistakes-but her frailties make her an appealing character. Catholicism is woven into the setting of 1970s Enniscorthy. The Church is represented by a mean, small-minded teacher in the Christian Brothers monastery school and by a saintly nun who acts as guardian angel for the family. Several years pass, in which Nora gradually finds an unexpected fulfillment in a talent she had never acknowledged. Toibin (Brooklyn) never employs dramatic fireworks to add an artificial boost to the narrative. No new suitor magically appears to fall in love with Nora. Instead, she remains a brave woman learning how to find a meaningful life as she goes on alone. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Toibin's (The Testament of Mary) most recent novel is set in Ireland in the mid-Sixties and describes the life of Nora Webster, a recently widowed 40-year-old mother of four who lives in a rural village with her two young sons. Until the slow and painful death of her husband, Nora's life had revolved around him and the family. Slowly she picks up the pieces, finds a job, and becomes more self-confident. Toibin smoothly meshes historical events with the day-to-day life of the grieving family. The work is flawlessly narrated by Fiona Shaw, whose Irish accent perfectly suits the novel. VERDICT Highly recommended for all collections of literary fiction.-Mary Knapp, Madison P.L., WI (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A subtle, pitch-perfect sonata of a novel in which an Irish widow faces her empty life and, incrementally, fills the hole left by the recent death of her husband. Tibn's latest serves as a companion piece to his masterful Brooklyn (2009), which detailed a young Irish woman's emigration in the 1950s. Set a decade later, this novel concerns a woman who stayed behind, the opportunities that went unexplored and the comforts that support her through tragedy. Left with two young sons (as well as daughters on the verge of adulthood) by the death of her husband, a beloved teacher, Nora exists in a "world filled with absences." Not that she's been abandoned. To the contrary, people won't leave her alone, and their clichd advice and condolences are the banes of her existence. And there's simply no escape in a village where everybody knows everything about everybody else. What she craves are people who "could talk to her sensibly not about what she had lost or how sorry they were, but about the children, money, part-time work, how to live now." Yet she had lived so much through her husbandeven before his unexpected illness and deaththat she hadn't really connected with other people, including her young sons, who now need more from her than perhaps she has to give. Without any forced drama, Nora works her way back into the world, with new priorities and even pleasures. There's a spiritual undercurrent here, in the nun who watches over Nora, in the community that provides what she needs (even as she resists) and especially in the music that fills her soul. Explains a woman she would never have encountered, left to her own devices: "There is no better way to heal yourself than singing in a choir. That is why God made music." A novel of mourning, healing and awakening; its plainspoken eloquence never succumbs to the sentimentality its heroine would reject. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

*Starred Review* The Ireland of four decades ago is beautifully evoked through events in the three-year widowhood of fortysomething Nora Webster, left by the early death of her beloved Maurice with four children and scarcely enough money to cover the family expenses. A character-portrait novel in the full definition of that type—which means as meticulous in detail and as sound in psychological understanding as a biography—Irishman Tóibín's latest rich novel, following the provocative Testament of Mary (2012), is self-assured in its authenticity, daring in the male author's presumption of inhabiting a female protagonist, and all this is achieved through prose at once alive and understated. Nora, as witnessed by not only her offspring but also her sisters, her other relatives, and many neighbors both supportive and trying, must step out of the rather cocoon-like world she and her husband had created for themselves in the small city of Wexford. "The problem for her was that she was on her own now and that she had no idea how to live." Tóibín's leisurely paced but completely absorbing narrative follows Nora's rebuilding, restoration, and reaffirmation to the point where she can put the memory of Maurice to the side and create a new life. A remarkably heart-affecting story. High Demand Backstory: National advertising, a six-city author tour, an author video, and TV and print and radio publicity are all part of the publisher's campaign behind Tóibín's latest. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

Nora Webster is widowed at 40, with four sons in her care and little money to support them. She's desperate to retain her independence and so grief-stricken that she barely registers how much her sons need her. But gradually she returns to singing, which she had abandoned years before, and finds herself. The multi-award-winning Tóibín has a gift for portraiture. With a six-city tour.

Tóibín's 10th novel offers a compelling portrait of an Irish woman for whom fate has prescribed loneliness. Widowed at 40, with four children and shaky finances, Nora rejects condolences and pity. She is so intent on making her children's lives normal that she ignores their need to mourn as well. In the wake of her husband's terminal illness, she instills fear and bewilderment in her two younger boys; they have nightmares, and one begins to stutter. The two girls, away at school, are resentful as well. Nora is sometimes obtuse about the choices she makes. She is short-tempered and sharp-tongued, and she makes significant mistakes—but her frailties make her an appealing character. Catholicism is woven into the setting of 1970s Enniscorthy. The Church is represented by a mean, small-minded teacher in the Christian Brothers monastery school and by a saintly nun who acts as guardian angel for the family. Several years pass, in which Nora gradually finds an unexpected fulfillment in a talent she had never acknowledged. Tóibín (Brooklyn) never employs dramatic fireworks to add an artificial boost to the narrative. No new suitor magically appears to fall in love with Nora. Instead, she remains a brave woman learning how to find a meaningful life as she goes on alone. (Oct.)