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September 2008 Indie Next List
“Home is set at the same time and in the same Iowa town as Robinson's novel Gilead, but in a different household, where the children of a dying man return home to care for him and to face the demons of their shared past. Beautifully written, Home is a tender portrayal of families, their secrets, their loves, and their faith.”
— Donna Hawley, Howard's Bookstore, Bloomington, IN
Indie Next List Highlights 2008
“Home is set at the same time and in the same Iowa town as Robinson's novel Gilead, but in a different household, where the children of a dying man return home to care for him and to face the demons of their shared past. Beautifully written, Home is a tender portrayal of families, their secrets, their loves, and their faith.”
— Donna Hawley, Howard's Bookstore, Bloomington, IN
Description
WINNER OF THE ORANGE PRIZE 2009
A 2008 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST
WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE
A New York Times Bestseller
A Washington Post Best Book of the Year
A Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year
A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year
Hailed as "incandescent," "magnificent," and "a literary miracle" (Entertainment Weekly), hundreds of thousands of readers were enthralled by Marilynne Robinson's Gilead. Now Robinson returns with a brilliantly imagined retelling of the prodigal son parable, set at the same moment and in the same Iowa town as Gilead. The Reverend Boughton's hell-raising son, Jack, has come home after twenty years away. Artful and devious in his youth, now an alcoholic carrying two decades worth of secrets, he is perpetually at odds with his traditionalist father, though he remains his most beloved child. As Jack tries to make peace with his father, he begins to forge an intense bond with his sister Glory, herself returning home with a broken heart and turbulent past. Home is a luminous and healing book about families, family secrets, and faith from one of America's most beloved and acclaimed authors.
About the Author
Marilynne Robinson is the recipient of a 2012 National Humanities Medal, awarded by President Barack Obama, for "her grace and intelligence in writing." She is the author of Gilead, winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award; Home, winner of the Orange Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and Lila, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her first novel, Housekeeping, won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. Robinson's nonfiction 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 lives in Iowa City, Iowa.
Praise For…
“Remarkable . . . an even stronger accomplishment than Gilead.” —Claire Messud, The New York Review of Books
“An exquisite, often ruefully funny meditation on redemption.” —Megan O'Grady, Vogue
“An anguished pastoral, a tableau of decency and compassion that is also an angry and devastating indictment of moral cowardice and unrepentant, unacknowledged sin. . . . . Beautiful.” —A. O. Scott, The New York Times Book Review
“Rich and resonant . . . Gilead and Home fit with and around each other perfectly, each complete on its own, yet enriching and enlivening the other. But both are books of such beauty and power.” —Emily Barton, Los Angeles Times
“Marilynne Robinson is so powerful a writer that she can reshape how we read.” —Mark Athitakis, Chicago Sun-Times
“Home begins simply, eschewing obvious verbal fineness, and slowly grows in luxury--its last fifty pages are magnificently moving. . . . Powerful.” —James Wood, The New Yorker
“When Marilynne Robinson writes a new book, it's an event.” —Pat MacEnulty, Charlotte Observer