Nora Webster, Colm Toibin
Nora Webster, Colm Toibin
2 Rating(s)
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Nora Webster

Author: Colm Toibin

Narrator: Fiona Shaw

Unabridged: 11 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/07/2014


Synopsis

2015 Audie Award Finalist for Literary Fiction

From one of contemporary literature’s bestselling, critically acclaimed, and beloved authors: a “luminous” novel (Jennifer Egan, The New York Times Book Review) about a fiercely compelling young widow navigating grief, fear, and longing, and finding her own voice—“heartrendingly transcendent” (The New York Times).

At forty, Nora Webster is newly widowed, left with four children and not nearly enough money. Maurice, the love of her life, had once saved her from a stifling existence—but now he's gone, and Nora fears she may be pulled back into a world she fought hard to leave behind. In a small Irish town where privacy is a luxury, Nora tries to keep her sorrow private—even as her young sons silently mourn the father they barely understand is missing.

As she wrestles with fear, anger, and identity, Nora reveals a complex interior life—wounded and secretive, yet capable of astonishing empathy and strength. When she rediscovers her passion for singing, Nora begins a quiet transformation, finding solace, connection, and a sense of self that she had long buried.

Shortlisted for the 2016 Audie Award for Literary Fiction and celebrated as “a perfect work of fiction” (Los Angeles Times), Nora Webster is a powerful and intimate look at grief, motherhood, and female independence. For fans of Brooklyn, The Testament of Mary, and Vinegar Hill, this novel is a deeply moving addition to the best of Irish literary fiction and an unforgettable story for book clubs and lovers of emotionally resonant stories.

“Miraculous…Tóibín portrays Nora with tremendous sympathy and understanding” (The Washington Post). Nora Webster is a masterpiece of quiet power, perfect for fans of character-driven fiction and literary explorations of personal transformation.

About Colm Toibin

Colm Tóibín is the author of eleven novels, including Long Island, an Oprah’s Book Club Pick; The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; and Nora Webster, winner of the Hawthornden Prize, as well as three story collections and several books of criticism. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and was named the 2022–2024 Laureate for Irish Fiction by the Arts Council of Ireland. In 2021, he was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Julie on November 02, 2014

Most of us lead lives of quiet desperation, knocked about every so often by rude shocks or lifted up by brief, brilliant joys. But our quotidian troubles and triumphs rarely create ripples beyond our own little ponds. As readers, we often gravitate toward lives played out on a grander scale—adventure......more

Goodreads review by Ron on October 14, 2014

Colm Tóibín’s most recent book was about a grieving woman, too. But she was the mother of Jesus Christ, so the stakes seemed somewhat higher. In his new novel, “Nora Webster,” the Irish master has posed an entirely different challenge for himself: Rather than imagining the angry rant of the Virgin w......more

Goodreads review by Laura on November 21, 2014

I don't know how he does it. The sentences are deceptively plain, and at first the novel feels almost colorless, odorless, mute. If you tried to explain the plot to someone, and you said, "It's about an Irish woman with four children whose husband dies while she's in her 40's," and you said that she......more

Goodreads review by Peter on September 29, 2019

I can't believe it took me so long to get around to Colm Tóibín. Within a few pages I was fully immersed in this tale of love and sorrow in a small Irish village. The story is set in 1969. Nora Webster, the mother of two girls and two younger boys, has just lost her husband Maurice. His death has le......more