Gilead

“Gilead is a beautiful work--demanding, grave and lucid . . . Robinson's words have a spiritual force that's very rare in contemporary fiction.” —James Wood, The New York Times Book Review

“Robinson's 1981 debut, Housekeeping, was a perfect novel if ever there was one, and her long-awaited second novel proves just as captivating . . . Robinson's prose is lovely and wonderfully precise . . . Gilead is a gentle journey that will be even better the second time you read it.” —Jeremy Jackson, People

“[Gilead] is so serenely beautiful, and written in a prose so gravely measured and thoughtful, that one feels touched with grace just to read it. Gilead possesses the quiet ineluctable perfection of Flaubert's A Simple Heart as well as the moral and emotional complexity of Robert Frost's deepest poetry . . . Immensely moving.” —Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book World

“A major work.” —Philip Connors, Newsday

“A beautifully rendered story . . . full of penetrating intellect and artful prose . . . that captures the splendors and pitfalls of being alive . . . The world could use . . . more novels this wise and radiant.” —Kathryn Schwille, The Charlotte Observer

“Compelling . . . Brilliant.” —Martin Northway, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“There is a lot of pleasure to be had in the novel's probing, thoughtful narrative voice.” —Matt Murray, The Wall Street Journal

“Magnificent . . . A psalm worthy of study, a sermon of the loveliest profundity . . . [A] literary miracle . . . 'A'.” —Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

“A Great American Novel.” —Time Out New York

“Robinson's long-awaited second novel is an almost otherwordly book-and reveals Robinson as a somewhat otherwordly figure herself . . . A work of enormous integrity . . . Original and strong . . . A beautiful book of ideas.” —Mona Simpson, The Atlantic Monthly

“The mature and thoughtful work of a superb and thoughtful storyteller.” —Ellen Emry Heltzel, St. Petersburg Times

“An inspired work from a writer whose sensibility seems steeped in holy fire.” —Lisa Shea, Elle

“The wait since 1981 and Housekeeping is over. Robinson returns with a second novel that, however quiet in tone and however delicate of step, will do no less than tell the story of America--and break your heart . . . Robinson has composed, with its cascading perfections of symbols, a novel as big as a nation, as quiet as thought, and moving as prayer. Matchless and towering.” —Kirkus, starred review

“The long wait has been worth it . . . Robinson's prose is beautiful, shimmering and precise . . . Destined to become her second classic.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Quietly powerful [and] moving.” —O, The Oprah Magazine (recommended reading)