I usually like Tóibín’s work, but was disappointed by this short novel. In my edition, it weighs in at 104 pages, but felt like hard work to slog through. Imagining Jesus’s mother as a sad, angry and guilt-ridden elderly woman, Tóibín tries to humanize her and to undermine the myths that grew around the Galilean sage. But the book strikes me as more about Tóibín’s own anger and may best be read as a reflection on the relationship between narrative (Biblical or otherwise) and truth.