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Marilynne Robinson · b. 1943 · United States

Why it matters

Glory Boughton returns to the family house in Gilead, Iowa, to care for her dying father just as her prodigal brother Jack, absent twenty years and carrying deep shame, also comes home. Gilead's quiet companion novel, retelling the same events from the sibling left holding the household together.

At a glance

Spare, theologically dense, meditative prose rewards unhurried, patient reading despite its contained plot.