https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Mother_Mary_Comes_to_MeMother Mary Comes to Me - Revision history2026-10-27T22:39:37ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.6https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mother_Mary_Comes_to_Me&diff=518495&oldid=prevAman064 at 11:24, 22 April 20262026-04-22T11:24:07Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Infobox book<br />
| image = Mother Mary Comes to Me (Book Cover).jpeg<br />
| author = Arundhati Roy<br />
| genre = Memoir<br />
| pub_date = September 2025<br />
}}<br />
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{{Short description|2025 memoir by Arundhati Roy}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2026}}<br />
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'''''Mother Mary Comes to Me''''' is a memoir by [[Arundhati Roy]] published in 2025. <br />
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It is centred on the eventful life of her mother [[Mary Roy]], who is "sharp, restless and charismatic, a visionary ruling with an iron fist<ref name=":2" />" and Arundhati Roy's relations with her.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gornick |first=Vivian |date=2026-02-26 |title=Mother Trouble |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/02/26/mother-trouble-mother-mary-comes-to-me-arundhati-roy/ |access-date=2026-02-12 |work=The New York Review of Books |language=en |volume=73 |issue=3 |issn=0028-7504}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Mead |first=Rebecca |date=2025-09-03 |title=What to Make of the Mother Who Made You |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/09/22/what-to-make-of-the-mother-who-made-you |access-date=2026-02-12 |work=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}}</ref>In the author's own words, it is "about my relationship with my mother, about how she made me the kind of writer that I am - and then resented it"<ref>{{Cite web |last=Biswas |first=South |date=2025-09-04 |title=Arundhati Roy’s fierce memoir on life with her mercurial mother |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzdnp43l8o |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en-GB}}</ref>. However, the book is also "a search for the roots of Roy’s own evolution into a writer"<ref>{{Cite news |last=Garcia-Navarro |first=Lulu |date=2025-08-30 |title=Arundhati Roy on How to Survive in a ‘Culture of Fear’ |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/magazine/arundhati-roy-modi-trump-interview.html |access-date=2026-02-15 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>. One commentator termed it a "biography cum autobiography of two remarkable women"<ref>{{Cite web |last=Walpola |first=Thilina |date=2025-09-21 |title=Comment: Arundhati Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me |url=http://island.lk/comment-arundhati-roys-mother-mary-comes-to-me/ |access-date=2026-02-15 |language=en-US|website=The Island}}</ref>. <br />
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The book received wide reviews published in leading newspapers and magazines, including the ''[[Financial Times]],'' ''[[The New York Times]]'', ''[[The Guardian]]'', ''[[The New Yorker]]'', ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]''<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Shelter and storm |url=https://www.the-tls.com/lives/autobiography/mother-mary-comes-to-me-arundhati-roy-book-review-pragya-agarwal |access-date=2026-02-12 |website=TLS |language=en-US |last=Agarwal |first=Pragya}}</ref> and ''[[The Hindu]]''<ref>{{Cite news |last=Dixit |first=Neha |date=2025-08-28 |title="I wasn’t brave. I did not have a choice," says Arundhati Roy in an interview about her memoir |url=https://www.thehindu.com/books/arundhati-roy-interview-new-memoir-mother-mary-comes-to-me/article69967654.ece |access-date=2026-02-12 |work=The Hindu |language=en-IN |issn=0971-751X}}</ref>,''[[The Straits Times]]''<ref>{{Cite news |date=2025-12-20 |title=Shawn Hoo’s top books of 2025 |url=https://www.straitstimes.com/life/arts/shawn-hoos-top-reads-of-2025-arundhati-roy-ng-yi-sheng-and-wahidah-tambee |access-date=2026-02-15 |work=The Straits Times |language=en |issn=0585-3923}}</ref>'','' to cite a few. ''The New York Times'' included the work in their list of the ten Best Books of 2025<ref>{{Cite news |date=2025-12-02 |title=The 10 Best Books of 2025 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/books/review/best-books-2025.html |access-date=2026-02-18 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>. <br />
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John Reed in a review published in the ''Financial Times'' commented: "The book has the lyricism of [[Gabriel García Márquez]], the political sweep of [[Barbara Kingsolver]], and the antic family humour of [[David Sedaris]]. There is not an ounce of self-pity in it."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Reed |first=John |date=30 August 2025 |title=Arundhati Roy: ‘One half of me was taking the pain, the other half was taking notes’ |url=https://www.ft.com/content/621ca5b7-0869-4646-b18a-b6b90b26b9e7 |access-date=14 February 2026 |website=Financial Times, UK}}</ref> Amit Chaudhari in a review published by ''The Guardian'' found the book to be "brave and absorbing," noting that Roy’s account of her mother has a "wonderful, self-assured self-sufficiency." He found the prose "unexpectedly funny" despite the heavy subject matter<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Chaudhuri |first=Amit |date=1 September 2025 |title=Mother Mary Comes To Me by Arundhati Roy review – brave and absorbing |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/sep/01/mother-mary-comes-to-me-by-arundhati-roy-review-brave-and-absorbing |access-date=12 February 2026 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>. Alexandra Jacobs, in a review in ''The New York Times'', praised the memoir as "sturdy and polished". She noted that Roy does not soften the "abrasive presence" of her mother, Mary Roy, presenting her both as "shelter and storm."<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Jacobs |first=Alexandra |date=2025-09-02 |title=She Raged. She Terrified. And She Shaped Arundhati Roy. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/books/review/arundhati-roy-mother-mary-comes-to-me.html |access-date=2026-02-12 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>''Kirkus Review'' described it as "an intimate, stirring chronicle" that revives "...the tangled complexities of filial love".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/arundhati-roy/mother-mary-comes-to-me/ |title=MOTHER MARY COMES TO ME {{!}} Kirkus Reviews |language=en}}</ref><br />
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Arundhati Roy won the 2025 [[National Book Critics Circle Award]] (for biography) for the book.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Alter |first=Alexandra |date=2026-03-27 |title=Han Kang Among National Book Critics Circle Award Winners |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/books/national-book-critics-circle-awards.html |access-date=2026-03-27 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>She also received [[Mathrubhumi]] Book of the Year Award 2026 for the work. Mathrubhumi praised her "ability to distil profound emotional complexity into powerful prose". It added that, "her writing combines clarity with intensity". Accepting the award, Roy described the book as the most difficult one she has written. She said that, "much of it was written at night and revisited the next morning", as she "grappled with some of (her) deepest fears and emotions"<ref>{{Cite web |last=Khosla |first=Aishwarya |date=2026-02-10 |title=Arundhati Roy wins Mathrubhumi Book of the Year Award for ‘Mother Mary Comes to Me’ |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/books-and-literature/arundhati-roy-mathrubhumi-book-the-year-award-mother-mary-comes-to-me-10501075/ |access-date=2026-02-15 |website=The Indian Express |language=en}}</ref>.<br />
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It is short listed for the 2026 [[Women's Prize for Non-Fiction]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=25 March 2026 |title=Revealing the 2026 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction Shortlist |url=https://womensprize.com/revealing-the-2026-womens-prize-for-non-fiction-shortlist/ |access-date=25 March 2026 |website=[[The Women's Prize]] |language=en}}</ref><br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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{{Authority control}}<br />
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[[Category:Works by Arundhati Roy]]<br />
[[Category:Penguin Books books]]<br />
[[Category:2025 non-fiction books]]<br />
[[Category:Indian memoirs]]</div>Aman064