[Alpion's] new and scrupulously researched study shows that she, with her turbulent early years, was even more remarkable than we thought. [Alpion's] recent research reveals a darker truth about Mother Teresa's history. Yet it is precisely her early troubles that may ensure her resonance in a world facing similar calamities. Fascinated with her formative years, Alpion, a British sociologist, believes that the young Teresa's 'trauma' was the crucible in which the saint was formed. Alpion finds the same early upheaval at the root of the most troubling aspect of her later life: her 50-year dark night of the soul, revealed in posthumous letters, during which Teresa felt as though Jesus had totally abandoned her. Her perception of divine withdrawal, he suggests, was a recapitulation of the loss of her father [who, when she nine, suffered a] sudden and agonising death, possibly by poisoning. Some who like their saints simple may choose not to hear him. But Mother Teresa has not been a simple saint for quite a while. Alpion's research will continue thus filling in more blanks in Teresa's early life.

David Van Biema, LIFE Magazine

Serious scholars and casual readers alike will find much to ponder in [Mother Teresa: The Saint and her Nation] – a book that at the very least enriches our understanding of one of the 20th century's most enduring figures.

Spiked

This scrupulously researched study shows that [Mother Teresa] was even more remarkable than we thought.

De Libris Book Club

Besides offering a pleasant read, the book is a testimony of new academic levels reached by the author. His meticulous efforts to bolster his claims with public documents related to Mother Teresa as well as new documents and facts deserve commendation and emulation from anyone in this discipline.

Southeast European and Black Sea Studies

A well-rounded portrait of this influential figure.

Black Christian News Network

[T]he book raised new questions and opened new venues for future research.

Journal of Church and State