"In a country where the love of a billion bucks is the holy grail, reading about a woman’s search for love as the Holy Grail of the soul can be an extraordinary experience.... Much of her personal life is explored in An Unquenchable Thirst, including the dark nights of the soul, as well as the light-bursts of love, written as if her discoveries and revelations connect to readers one at a time." --Steve Sherman, from Keene Sentinel
Reviews
Best Memoirs of 2011: Kirkus Reviews named An Unquenchable Thirst to their list of Best Nonfiction of 2011.
Slate.com named An Unquenchable Thirst their Book of the Week on December 2, 2011: "Johnson's is a spiritual journey much starker and more enthralling than most...an incredible coming of age story. No interest in theology necessary."
Publication Industry Recommendations
"[Johnson's] fascinating memoir details her evolution from devoted disciple to distressed, exhausted nun, determined to leave her vocation and answer a calling to live in the wider world." --Ilene Cooper, starred review from Booklist, the American Library Association
"A remarkable, elegant spiritual memoir...[of] a bright, independent young woman who tries to adapt to a world of rules, painful regiments, and unobtainable righteousness... an extraordinarily revealing and intimate portrait." --Nancy Richey, from Library Journal
"Johnson’s portrayal of her time as a nun is likely to be controversial; her memoir is exceptional." --starred review from Kirkus Reviews
Print Reviews
“An Unquenchable Thirst is engaging, heartfelt and entertaining...[Johnson] articulates her struggles with her God in words that will hit home.”--Shari Roan, from LA Times
“A wonderful achievement….Johnson takes an unflinching look inside her own heart [and]….opens the window on a horizon of spiritual questions.”--from Christian Science Monitor
"Incredibly, Johnson writes with a deep empathy for the women with whom she shared 20 years, as if by revealing to us their faults and their kindnesses, their failures and their triumphs, we too, might forgo judgement and accept them as simply human." --Beatriz Terrazas, from The Dallas Morning News
“Now married and living as a writer in New Hampshire, Johnson has chronicled two decades of a no-holds-barred nun’s story while avoiding the temptation of a spiteful, smutty ‘convent confidential.’” --Jonathan E. Lazarus, from Star-Ledger Entertainment Desk
"Johnson's life is driven by a deep desire to comfort and serve. The ability to cleave to that desire for 20 years seems near-heroic, but that sense doesn't come from any self-aggrandizing writing. Johnson's prose is both conversational and humble." --Robin Vidimos, from The Denver Post
"Unlike memoirs in which the author invokes the omnipotence of hindsight, Johnson's allows for the arch of her journey to play out in real time; she becomes the protagonist in a kind of biographical novel. We experience her initial zeal, growing disillusionment, and gradual sexual, intellectual, and emotional emancipation." --Allastair Newton in Extra Magazine
"In a country where the love of a billion bucks is the holy grail, reading about a woman’s search for love as the Holy Grail of the soul can be an extraordinary experience. Mary Johnson gives us a forthright, bare-hearted book." --Steve Sherman, from New Hampshire Sentinel
"Johnson's 20 years... in Mother Teresa's order, reads like a novel... but is also an exacting account of a woman growing into her own soul. When at last she leaves the order, it's not with bitterness but with love." --Marcia Menter, from MORE Magazine
"Johnson's memoir is a page-turner.... She shares intimate aspects of the female experience and the terrors and joys that come with it. As for her faith journey, there is nothing easy about it. It is just as serious, questioning, doubting and struggling as Thomas Merton's." --Mike Pride, from The Concord Monitor
"I have problems with memoirs, as readers of my past reviews of them no doubt remember. But I can recommend Mary Johnson's "An Unquenchable Thirst" with no reservations. Johnson spares few members of her Missionaries of Charity order, founded by Mother Teresa in 1946, as well as the church's hierarchy-- and herself in telling her story." --David M. Kinchchen, from Huntington News
"The writing of "An Unquenchable Thirst" is so lovely that it reads like a prayer for reconciliation. " --Joshunda Sanders, from The Austin Statesman
Online Reviews
"If I had a personal list of the best books of 2011, An Unquenchable Thirst would be on it."--Slate.com
"Johnson is a terrific writer - incisive, thoughtful, able to conjure the excitement and passion for her calling and just as vividly describe her fall." --Toni Whitmont, editor of Booktopia Buzz
"I highly recommend An Unquenchable Thirst to anyone who admires Mother Teresa, or has wondered about the reality of taking on a life of service." --Hilary Williamson, from BookLoons
“[Mary Johnson] made the story powerful without whitewashing the negatives or dismissing the positives. Despite her choice to leave the nuns and her vows, she never waivers in her belief in Mother Teresa. The power of Mother Teresa continues.” -- Cheryl A. Chatfield, PhD
"The memoir draws us into Sister Donata’s complicated relationship with Mother Teresa, the nun who believed that all suffering is a gift from Jesus and whose inscrutable decisions were not always wise." --Leslie Greffenius, from Beyond the Margins
"May the words in this book reach far and wide!" --Tamam Kahn, from CompleteWord
"Mary Johnson is brutally honest throughout the book, especially about herself. She freely lets us into her deepest secrets, thoughts, desires, and problems." --The Book Garden
“A well-written, fascinating story about a nun privileged to enter Mother Teresa’s inner circle, a nun who rose to a position of influence among other nuns of the order only to eventually leave the church altogether. I applaud Mary Johnson’s work.” --Rosemary Carstens, from Feast of Books
"This is a fascinating story for Christians and atheists alike as it depicts the daily struggles in life in religious service." --Black Cat Books
"This book was... uncensored look at what daily life in a fundamentalist religious order is really like, almost an X-ray view into a group that's normally opaque to outsiders." --Adam Lee, from BigThink
“The power of Mary Johnson’s unusual route to self-discovery through joining Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity lies in the mass of details describing her everyday life among the Sisters, as they strive to live close to God and give to the poor.” --Lyn McDonald, review from Mindfood.com
"On the plane trip I read all of Mary Johnson's new book, An Unquenchable Thirst, which is coming out shortyly from Spiegel and Grau. The book was dazzling, a look into the life of a nun who finally leaves being a nun in the service of Mother Teresa to become a whole person. I found it utterly compelling, raw and yet exquisite, I didn't want it to end." --Kate Gale, from A Mind Never Dormat
"While I'm not generally a great reader of memoir, I practicially gorged myself on this book." --Kelly Davio, from Kelly Davio Blog
"The courage it took to walk away from that life as a nun and to embrace a new way of thinking, living, and loving is almost unimaginable, the courage to share her story in this book even more so." --Rhetta Akamatsu, from Blog Critics
"This book is not a Catholic-bashing fest. It is a respectfully honest and forthright memoir reflecting not only the experience of the author, but the experience of many others." --D Gregory Smith, from From Eternity To Here
“Mary Johnson provides a fascinating insight into life in Mother Teresa’s order, a life which for many will seem unnecessarily harsh, restrictive and intensely lonely. There is also opportunity for abuse… it would appear that some in positions of authority are still steeped in the attitudes and sins of the world.” --Andy Morgan, from Luke Fourteen Thirty Three Blog
"An Unquenchable Thirst is the fascinating memoir of one young woman’s search for love and meaning." --Julie Nelson, from Lost in the Stacks of the Topeka Public Library
Reviews in Other Languages
Portuguese: O livro descreve a vida da Ordem da Madre Teresa por dentro e não poupa as críticas.
Interview with Darlene Chandler Bassett translated into Russian: Любовь по правилам и без
Author Recommendations
“A heartfelt, personal story of the gradual awakening of a person who comes to see that preferring ‘the human to the perfect’ does not alienate her from authentic spirituality, but allows her to live more fully.”– Kathleen Norris, author of The Cloister Walk
"This is not your grandmother's ex-nun story. Johnson speaks openly and frankly about her experiences as a nun in the order founded by Mother Teresa. While working closely with Mother Teresa, Mary Johnson experienced the holy joy of prayer, and the angst-filled pull of sex. No sugar coating here: Johnson examines the entire experience with staggering honesty." --Barb Johnson, author of More of This World or Maybe Another
“Mary Johnson is brave writ large -- very large and very courageously and very simply and very gently and very intellectually and very wholly.” --Breena Clarke, author of Stand the Storm
“An Unquenchable Thirst is an eloquent and moving tale that is an extraordinary testament to the enduring power of love- beyond faith and dogma.” --Mira Bartok, author of The Memory Palace