Gilead Books

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER A hymn of praise and lamentation from a 1950s preacher man. A testament to the sacred bonds between fathers and sons. A psalm of celebration and acceptance of the best and the worst that the world has to offer. This is the story of generations, as told through a family history written by Reverend John Ames, a legacy for the young son he will never see grow up. As John records the tale of the rift between his own father and grandfather, he also struggles with the return to his small town of a friend’s prodigal son in search of forgiveness and redemption. The winner of two major literary awards and a New York Times Top10 Book of 2004, Gilead is an exquisitely written work of literary fiction, destined to become a classic, by one of today’s finest writers.

WINNER OF THE ORANGE PRIZE • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST Glory Boughton has returned to Gilead to care for her dying father. soon her brother, Jack—the prodigal son of the family, gone for twenty years—comes home too, looking for refuge and trying to make peace with a past littered with torment and pain. A troubled boy from childhood, an alcoholic who cannot hold a job, Jack is one of the great characters in recent literature. He is perpetually at odds with his surroundings and with his traditionalist father, though he remains Reverend Boughton’s most beloved child. Brilliant, beguiling, lovable and wayward, Jack forges an intense new bond with Glory and engages painfully with John Ames, his godfather and namesake. Home is a moving and healing book about families, family secrets and the passing of the generations, about love and death and faith. It is arguably Marilynne Robinson’s greatest work, an unforgettable embodiment of the deepest and most universal emotions.

A New York Times Bestseller NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER A new American classic from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gilead and Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson, one of the greatest novelists of our time, returns to the town of Gilead in an unforgettable story of a girlhood lived on the fringes of society in fear, awe, and wonder. Lila, homeless and alone after years of roaming the countryside, steps inside a small-town Iowa church-the only available shelter from the rain-and ignites a romance and a debate that will reshape her life. She becomes the wife of a minister, John Ames, and begins a new existence while trying to make sense of the life that preceded her newfound security. Neglected as a toddler, Lila was rescued by Doll, a canny young drifter, and brought up by her in a hardscrabble childhood. Together they crafted a life on the run, living hand to mouth with nothing but their sisterly bond and a ragged blade to protect them. Despite bouts of petty violence and moments of desperation, their shared life was laced with moments of joy and love. When Lila arrives in Gilead, she struggles to reconcile the life of her makeshift family and their days of hardship with the gentle Christian worldview of her husband which paradoxically judges those she loves. Revisiting the beloved characters and setting of Robinson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead and Home , a National Book Award finalist, Lila is a moving expression of the mysteries of existence that is destined to become an American classic.

'Grace and intelligence . . . [her work] defines universal truths about what it means to be human' BARACK OBAMA ' Radiant and visionary' SARAH PERRY, GUARDIAN A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A BARACK OBAMA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK Marilynne Robinson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the American National Humanities Medal, returns to the world of Gilead with Jack, the final in one of the great works of contemporary American fiction. Jack tells the story of John Ames Boughton, the loved and grieved-over prodigal son of a Presbyterian minister in Gilead, Iowa, a drunkard and a ne'er-do-well. In segregated St. Louis sometime after World War II, Jack falls in love with Della Miles, an African-American high school teacher, also a preacher's child, with a discriminating mind, a generous spirit and an independent will. Their fraught, beautiful story is one of Robinson's greatest achievements. ' Jack is the fourth in Robinson's luminous, profound Gilead series and perhaps the best yet' OBSERVER