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Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
On Sale: 11/15/2004
ISBN: 9780374706098
256 PagesThe 2004 Pulitzer Prize winning novel
A New York Times Top-Ten Book of 2004
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction
Nearly 25 years after Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson returns with an intimate tale of three generations, from the Civil War to the 20th century: a story about fathers and sons and the spiritual battles that still rage at America's heart. In the words of Kirkus, it is a novel "as big as a nation, as quiet as thought, and moving as prayer. Matchless and towering." GILEAD tells the story of America and will break your heart.
Book Sense Book of the Year Award - Nominee, Pulitzer Prize Winner, ALA Notable Books - Winner, National Book Critics Circle Awards Winner, Midwest Booksellers' Choice Award - Winner, Society of Midland Authors Book Awards - Winner, Christianity Today Book Award, PEN/Faulkner Award - Nominee, L.A. Times Book Prize - Finalist, Ambassador Book Award - Winner, Society of Midland Authors Book Awards - Nominee, Children's Crown Collection, NCSA, National Book Critics Circle Award - Winner
I told you last night that I might be gone sometime, and you said, Where, and I said, To be with the Good Lord, and you said, Why, and I said, Because I’m old, and you said, I don’t think you’re old. And you put your hand in my hand and you...
Listen to an Excerpt from the Audiobook
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Gilead by Marilynne Robinson--Audiobook Excerpt
Listen to this audiobook excerpt from Marilynne Robinson's novel Gilead, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Nearly 25 years after her first novel, Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson returns with an intimate tale of three generations, from the Civil War to the 20th century: a story about fathers and sons and the spiritual battles that still rage at America's heart. In the words of Kirkus, it is a novel "as big as a nation, as quiet as thought, and moving as prayer. Matchle
Share ThisPraise for 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 mi… More…
“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)
In the Press
Work in Progress » Blog Archive » Marilynne Robinson: When I Was a Child I Read Books
Marilynne Robinson is the author of the novels Housekeeping (FSG, 1981), Gilead (FSG, 2004), winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and Home (FSG, 2008), and three books of nonfiction, Mother Country (FSG, 1989), The Death of Adam (1998) and Absence of Mind (2010). - FSG's Work in Progress