Kindle
$7.99
Available instantly
Audible Logo Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial
Hardcover
$9.30
Mass Market Paperback
$7.99
Buy new:
$7.99
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$7.99
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Friday, May 10. Order within 22 hrs 22 mins
Only 2 left in stock (more on the way).
$$7.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$7.99
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$1.23
Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc... Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc... See less
$3.98 delivery May 15 - 16. Details
Only 6 left in stock - order soon.
$$7.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$7.99
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Ships from and sold by glenthebookseller.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Anita Shreve
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Testimony: A Novel Mass Market Paperback – September 1, 2010

by Anita Shreve (Author)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 2,308 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$7.99","priceAmount":7.99,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"7","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"t0Rhfueszl5mBUvIekkZemFMn9ZzbB7TOq9AIKkdpknAq6N%2BU7%2BWeCnQqsK9aNMfE%2Fz2dWvnqbJnN0CemWwR1krWuy6vG25cH7fHkCnmEWp4OrdKvwIHi8yz09ZX9YZmFAznDM4IV60%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$1.23","priceAmount":1.23,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"1","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"23","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"t0Rhfueszl5mBUvIekkZemFMn9ZzbB7T4klSNOkdW3EAMR7OyqD3Hg6VtqTkxaXYEIwwHec2iqeZWVaEfA2xDIRfhlurXqvGFdxipmOu7AGPVX7GjR5ME2lsJIWXx%2B37mI9GdAwf6hEiRO6e7KQH%2B%2FcE8VGEvUUD9rDe6Bdj5R09AbjFhm2wrSL9xvDNoa57","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

At a New England boarding school, a sex scandal is about to break. Even more shocking than the sexual acts themselves is the fact that they were caught on videotape. A Pandora's box of revelations, the tape triggers a chorus of voices -- those of the men, women, teenagers, and parents involved in the scandal -- that details the ways in which lives can be derailed or destroyed in one foolish moment.

Writing with a pace and intensity surpassing even her own greatest work, Anita Shreve delivers in Testimony a gripping emotional drama with the impact of a thriller. No one more compellingly explores the dark impulses that sway the lives of seeming innocents, the needs and fears that drive ordinary men and women into intolerable dilemmas, and the ways in which our best intentions can lead to our worst transgressions.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    352 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Little, Brown and Company
  4. Publication date
    September 1, 2010
  5. Dimensions
    4.25 x 1 x 6.75 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    9780316080514
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0316080514
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A tale that is mesmerizing, hypnotic, and compulsive. No one walks away unscathed, and that includes the reader."―Bette-Lee Fox, Library Journal

"Gripping....Shreve sets us down in a swirling drama that ruins lives, ends one, all stemming from a night of drunken abandon at a prep school."―Sherryl Connelly, New York Daily News

" Contrasting the sweetness of young love with the primal recklessness of lust, Shreve paints a chilling portrait of how bad decisions in brief moments can ruin lives."
―Joanna Powell, People

"Gripping. . . . TESTIMONY will break your heart even as you race on to the next page."―Jennifer Roolf Laster, Houston Chronicle

"Haunting....Paced like a thriller, TESTIMONY sustains its intensity to the end."―Carmela Ciuraru, Hallmark

About the Author

Anita Shreve is the acclaimed author of more than fifteen novels, including Testimony; The Pilot's Wife, which was a selection of Oprah's Book Club; and The Weight of Water, which was a finalist for England's Orange prize. She lives in Massachusetts.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0316080519
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little, Brown and Company; Reprint edition (September 1, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780316080514
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0316080514
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.25 x 1 x 6.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 2,308 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Anita Shreve

Anita Shreve

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Anita Shreve grew up in Dedham, Massachusetts (just outside Boston), the eldest of three daughters. Early literary influences include having read Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton when she was a junior in high school (a short novel she still claims as one of her favorites) and everything Eugene O'Neill ever wrote while she was a senior (to which she attributes a somewhat dark streak in her own work). After graduating from Tufts University, she taught high school for a number of years in and around Boston. In the middle of her last year, she quit (something that, as a parent, she finds appalling now) to start writing. "I had this panicky sensation that it was now or never."

Joking that she could wallpaper her bathroom with rejections from magazines for her short stories ("I really could have," she says), she published her early work in literary journals. One of these stories, "Past the Island, Drifting," won an O. Henry prize. Despite this accolade, she quickly learned that one couldn't make a living writing short fiction. Switching to journalism, Shreve traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, where she lived for three years, working as a journalist for an African magazine. One of her novels, The Last Time They Met, contains bits and pieces from her time in Africa.

Returning to the United States, Shreve was a writer and editor for a number of magazines in New York. Later, when she began her family, she turned to freelancing, publishing in the New York Times Magazine, New York magazine and dozens of others. In 1989, she published her first novel, Eden Close. Since then she has written 14 other novels, among them The Weight of Water, The Pilot's Wife, The Last Time They Met, A Wedding in December, Body Surfing, Testimony,and A Change in Altitude.

In 1998, Shreve received the PEN/L. L. Winship Award and the New England Book Award for fiction. In 1999, she received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey, and The Pilot's Wife became the 25th selection of Oprah's Book Club and an international bestseller. In April 2002, CBS aired the film version of The Pilot's Wife, starring Christine Lahti, and in fall 2002, The Weight of Water, starring Elizabeth Hurley and Sean Penn, was released in movie theaters.

Still in love with the novel form, Shreve writes only in that genre. "The best analogy I can give to describe writing for me is daydreaming," she says. "A certain amount of craft is brought to bear, but the experience feels very dreamlike."

Shreve is married to a man she met when she was 13. She has two children and three stepchildren, and in the last eight years has made tuition payments to seven colleges and universities.

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
2,308 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Victorian Mystery Lady
5.0 out of 5 stars Feelings put into Words
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2011
Verified Purchase
Testimony is like nothing Anita Shreve has written before -- other reviewers have stated that and I agree. I think because its subject matter is not one that we expect Anita Shreve to write about but the book is similar to her others because it deals with emotions. One of the things I love about this author is that she has ability to write feelings. Her character Ellen when first introduced to us expresses: `You wait for the call in the night. ...You hear the words, but you can't form the sentences.' Wow! This narrative that she writes for Ellen is amazing and so thoughtful and true to life that I felt exactly what Ellen was feeling. This book is worth reading and experiencing. Anita Shreve's style in her presentation of characters adds to the book and allows the reader to experience the intensity of the situation from each character's point of view. By writing in this fashion she has allowed the reader to not just observe the situation but experience it emotionally right along with her characters.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
bookworm
4.0 out of 5 stars Testimony review- worth the read!
Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2012
Verified Purchase
I was forced to read Testimony in book club by a friend who read a few of Anita Shreeve's novels. Because the book is told from multiple character's point of views in short chapters I thought it would be hard to keep up with, but I was pleasantly surprised. This unique construction only aids in character development and allows readers to get a good, accurate sense of the main story line. Wonderful story that's surprising, touching, and very real. It was an easy enough read but intelligent and fulfilling. I would definitely recommend it!
Helpful
 Report
B. A. Chaney
3.0 out of 5 stars Something Very Different, But Moving, from Shreve
Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2008
Verified Purchase
I'm a big fan of Anita Shreve, and I've read all of her books. When I saw her newest novel, Testimony, in stores I picked it up immediately. What I discovered was that Testimony is a story different from Shreve's other novels. Most of her novels deal with a woman who falls in love in some life altering way--but Testimony is definitely different.

Testimony still deals with a life changing event--but instead of love its a sex scandal at a tony private school. The book uses short passages from about a dozen characters connected to the scandal in different ways to reveal how it happened and its repercussions. Even though the scandal seems pretty straightforward from the start, there are some twists that happen through the course of the narrative that make the story much deeper than a ripped-from-the-headlines teen sex scandal story. In Shreve's usual style, Testimony keeps you turning the pages--I didn't want to put this book down.

I will warn readers that there are some graphic scenes in this novel--it does deal with a sex scandal. If this review system allowed half stars, I would give the novel 3 and a half stars--I enjoyed the book overall, but I was a little disappointed since I had enjoyed Shreve's earlier novels so much and was hoping for more of the same. But overall I think this book is worth reading--its a good story about the consequences of seemingly harmless actions.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Jeanne Anderson
5.0 out of 5 stars "There are Consequences for our Actions"
Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2008
Verified Purchase
Once again, Anita Shreve delivers. Her latest book is about a small private school in Vermont. It is also about the people (students,parents,teachers,headmaster) and all the others of this small community.

The incident that gets the ball rolling starts with a tape dropped off to the headmaster of the school. The tape is of three boys (18 and 19 Yrs. old) and one 14 year old girl engaging in sex in what seems to be a very drunken state, in the boys dorm room.

The story is told by all the participants and their families. Each chapter is narrated by one of these people. It is at this point, as you get much further into the book that you learn there is much more to this very sad and disturbing story. When one bad decision is made and discovered the dominos begin to fall and the consequences of this are horrific and unfortunate.

There is also a very good chapter at the end of the book that puts the whole incident into a different light. To say more would spoil the whole thing. If you have enjoyed Anita Shreve in the past, don't miss this one, it is fantastic!!!!
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
butterflygirl
4.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking...
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2014
Verified Purchase
Of the books written by Anita Shreve, I've read one other - "The Pilots Wife" - so I was familiar with her style of writing.
That was one of the reasons why I decided to read "Testimony" - If I'm not mistaken, another reviewer of this book indicated that the storyline & format would be appreciated by people who enjoyed & understood Shreve's style.
The story was told I think uniquely, by several characters...some of whom were major players in the story, & others who had a less significant role. I was impressed with how well so many of the characters were developed. It definitely caused me consider multiple points of view & to wonder how these types of actions & circumstances might evolve in reality.
Whether or not you've read this author before, I recommend giving this book a try - I don't think you'll be disappointed!
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A Book Every Parent Should Read
Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2012
Verified Purchase
A book every parent should recognize since the worries over late night phone calls, wondering where the bear traps might be for YOUR child is full of universal angst.
Without judgement, Shreve let's us see all of the explanations, emotions, thought processes and costs to future lives when three teen-age boys take a step off their charted paths with devastating consequences. Shreve let's us see the story of heartbreaks behind the headlines and exactly what costs are brought to their families.
Sould have every parent honestly thinking if only for a few milliseconds, there but for the grace of God, go I. This book SHOULD be required reading for every high school sophomore , not in English Lit class but in Ethics. Teenagers with their feelings of immortality and looks past consequences for their every decision will either get the book, or not
A possible future lost is found in all three families of the boys involved but it points with laser precision at the loss of responsibility or consequence for the girl.
But everyone has to make their own judgement ........ Of who was right and who was wronged.
Just like The Pilots Wife, this story is not a feel good, put it down and forget it 5 minutes later book. It will stay with you and maybe even make you think about your own path.
9 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
wenmar
5.0 out of 5 stars 5 stars but could not love it
Reviewed in Canada on June 2, 2013
Verified Purchase
I choose 5 stars because I thought it really depicted how one terrible incident could so completely destroy so many lives. The insight into the characters was so vivid. But I could not say that I loved it because it was so close to life today and so sad.
Report
sophie
1.0 out of 5 stars ennuyeux, long
Reviewed in France on July 18, 2014
Verified Purchase
cette histoire racontée à partir des différents points de vue des protagonistes m'a laissée indifférente. Je n'ai pas compris où voulait en venir l'auteure. Décrire les mœurs sexuels des adolescents américains ne me semble pas suffisant pour en faire une œuvre intéressante. Ces constants retours en arrière n'apportent pas grand chose à ce drame. Bref je me suis ennuyée.
One person found this helpful
 Report
Hilda
4.0 out of 5 stars Well written holds attention.
Reviewed in Australia on December 12, 2014
Verified Purchase
Anitta Shreve's Testimony is another well written book which holds your attention until the end.A story about a sex scandal in a private school. This book was for me a little depressing and the characters mostly unlikable. I was hoping for a ray of positivity af the end.
Report
Suzie
5.0 out of 5 stars A book that stays with you
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 28, 2009
Verified Purchase
I so enjoyed some of Anita Shreve's earlier books - The Weight of Water, for instance, and Strange Fits of Passion - but was disappointed with her more recent novels, so the comment `Anita Shreve is back on cracking form...' inspired me to try Testimony. I'm so glad I did. I wasn't sure I'd like it because the subject matter - a sexual scandal in a school - didn't sound very appealing, but it's excellent!

It's a novel that explores the far-reaching effects of a few moments' indiscretion in the lives of a small group of teenagers, the talent and promise wasted, thrown away. In fact, there are two indiscretions in the story, ultimately linked and brilliantly woven together. Suffice it to say that this adds a deeper dimension to the sorry tale than is apparent until later, but to say more would spoil the book for those who haven't read it.

The story starts when a tape is handed to Mike Bordman, the headmaster, and slowly unfolds through the viewpoints of the characters involved and those whose lives are affected by it. So often this multi-viewpoint approach doesn't work, as you never feel you get to know any of the characters well enough to care what happens to them. Anita Shreve's skill is such, though, that this criticism cannot be levelled at Testimony. Although none of the characters is fully developed, you are really drawn into their lives and how they feel as events unfold. I suppose Mike, the headmaster, and Silas, one of the boys involved, are the two you get to know most closely. Indeed, the story of Silas and his girlfriend, Noelle, is the most moving.

This is certainly not a pleasurable story, but it's so compelling that you just have to keep reading. It's a troubling book that remains with you long after you've finished it, mulling over the all the `if only this had happened' or `if only that character had acted differently' thoughts. But it's a book I thoroughly recommend!
Report
thelmablue
4.0 out of 5 stars Not an easy read, content-wise, but well written
Reviewed in Canada on May 13, 2014
Verified Purchase
Anita Shreve has a lovely writing style, which means I pretty much like to read anything she publishes. The content was, however, unrelenting in that there was no joy to be found from page one. I know the subject matter, an out-of-control spiral to the end, probably calls for this, but it is dark. This is a book I will always remember because it so perfectly illustrates how a minute can throw dozens of lives into the quagmire.
Report