WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION and THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD

AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK

In 1956, towards the end of Reverend John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son: 'I told you last night that I might be gone sometime... You reached up and put your fingers on my lips and gave me that look I never in my life saw on any other face besides your mother's. It's a kind of furious pride, very passionate and stern. I'm always a little surprised to find my eyebrows unsinged after I've suffered one of those looks. I will miss them.'

'A visionary work of dazzling originality' ROBERT MCCRUM, OBSERVER

'Writing of this quality, with an authority as unforced as the perfect pitch in music, is rare and carries with it a sense almost of danger' JANE SHILLING, DAILY TELEGRAPH

'A beautiful novel: wise, tender and perfectly measured' SARAH WATERS

'A masterpiece' SUNDAY TIMES

* National press broadsheet colour ad campaign in THE TIMES, GUARDIAN, INDEPENDENT and SUNDAY TIMES highlighting magnificent reviews * Review round-ups * Reading copies available * Submitted for trade promotions

About the Author
Marilynne Robinson is the author of Gilead, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award; Home, winner of the Orange Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Lila, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Jack, a New York Times bestseller. Her first novel, Housekeeping, won the PEN/Hemingway Award. Robinson's non-fiction books include The Givenness of Things, When I Was a Child I Read Books, Absence of Mind, The Death of Adam, and Mother Country. She is the recipient of a 2012 National Humanities Medal, awarded by President Barack Obama, for 'her grace and intelligence in writing.' Robinson lives in Iowa City, Iowa.

Reviews
Gilead is no less a masterpiece than Housekeeping * Sunday Times *
A beautiful novel: wise, tender and perfectly measured * Sarah Waters *
Stunning... there are gems on every page of Gilead, but it is the whole construction that marks it as a great work * Daily Telegraph *
A visionary work of dazzling originality -- Robert McCrum * Observer *
"Grace is not so poor a thing that it cannot present itself in any number of ways", Ames tells of his son; the same can be said of this book, one of the best American novels in recent memory, so replete with grace that almost anyone should find a balm in Gilead -- Sarah Churchill * Times Literary Supplement *
Writing of this quality, with an authority as unforced as the perfect pitch in music, is rare and carries with it a sense almost of danger -- Jane Shilling * Sunday Telegraph *
The slow pulse of Robinson's writing slows the reader's eye and mind, and creates in the reading process a literary version of the narrator's spiritual experience. Gilead reminds us that words have power to spare, to forgive, to do justice * Independent *
A novel as big as a nation, as quiet as thought, and moving as prayer. Matchless and towering * Kirkus Reviews *
Her poetic, almost biblical style of writing... flows like clear cold water and is full of quiet power while remaining oddly conversational... People say they love these books, and I can see why. Quite how they can do so without discerning within them a serious, deep, patient but modest defence of the Christian proposition, I do not know * Mail Online *
It is a book of such meditative calm, such spiritual intensity that it seems miraculous that her silence was only for 23 years; such measure of wisdom is the fruit of a lifetime. Robinson's prose, aligned with the sublime simplicity of the language of the bible, is nothing short of a benediction. You might not share its faith, but it is difficult not to be awed, moved and ultimately humbled by the spiritual effulgence that lights up the novel from within -- Neel Mukherjee * The Times *
Gilead is Marilynne Robinson's first novel since her highly acclaimed debut, Housekeeping, 24 years ago, and its measured prose manifests a spiritual power that well rewards the wait -- Michael Arditti * Daily Mail *
Rapturous... astonishing... Gilead is an inspired work from a writer whose sensibility seems steeped in holy fire * Elle *
So serenely beautiful and written in a prose so gravely measured and thoughtful, that one feels touched with grace just to read it * Washington Post *
Poignant, absorbing, lyrical... Robinson manages to convey the miracle of existence itself * Los Angeles Times *
Gilead is a refuge for readers longing for that increasingly rare work of fiction, one that explores big ideas while telling a good story * San Francisco Chronicle *


Awards
Winner of Pulitzer Prize 2005 (UK). Long-listed for Orange Prize 2006 (UK).



Book Information
ISBN 9781844081486
Author Marilynne Robinson
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Virago Press Ltd
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Weight(grams) 230g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 127mm * 20mm