Most Popular Books by Marilynne Robinson

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award National Book Award Finalist A new American classic from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gilead and Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson, one of the greatest novelists of our time, returns to the town of Gilead in an unforgettable story of a girlhood lived on the fringes of society in fear, awe, and wonder. Lila, homeless and alone after years of roaming the countryside, steps inside a small-town Iowa church-the only available shelter from the rain-and ignites a romance and a debate that will reshape her life. She becomes the wife of a minister, John Ames, and begins a new existence while trying to make sense of the life that preceded her newfound security. Neglected as a toddler, Lila was rescued by Doll, a canny young drifter, and brought up by her in a hardscrabble childhood. Together they crafted a life on the run, living hand to mouth with nothing but their sisterly bond and a ragged blade to protect them. Despite bouts of petty violence and moments of desperation, their shared life was laced with moments of joy and love. When Lila arrives in Gilead, she struggles to reconcile the life of her makeshift family and their days of hardship with the gentle Christian worldview of her husband which paradoxically judges those she loves. Revisiting the beloved characters and setting of Robinson''s Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead and Home, a National Book Award finalist, Lila is a moving expression of the mysteries of existence that is destined to become an American classic.

Winner of the Pen/Hemingway Award A modern classic, Marilynne Robinson''s Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, the eccentric and remote sister of their dead mother. The family house is in the small town of Fingerbone on a glacial lake in the Far West, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck and their mother drove off a cliff to her death. It is a town "chastened by an outsized landscape and extravagant weather, and chastened again by an awareness that the whole of human history had occurred elsewhere." Ruth and Lucille''s struggle toward adulthood beautifully illuminates the price of loss and survival, and the dangerous and deep undertow of transcience.

One of Barack Obama’s Book Picks of Summer 2024 One of our greatest novelists and thinkers presents a radiant, thrilling interpretation of the book of Genesis. For generations, the book of Genesis has been treated by scholars as a collection of documents, by various hands, expressing different factional interests, with borrowings from other ancient literatures that mark the text as derivative. In other words, academic interpretation of Genesis has centered on the question of its basic coherency, just as fundamentalist interpretation has centered on the question of the appropriateness of reading it as literally true. Both of these approaches preclude an appreciation of its greatness as literature, its rich articulation and exploration of themes that resonate through the whole of Scripture. Marilynne Robinson’s Reading Genesis is a powerful consideration of the profound meanings and promise of God’s enduring covenant with man. This magisterial book radiates gratitude for the constancy and benevolence of God’s abiding faith in Creation.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Gilead" pens a moving and healing book about families, family secrets, and the passing of the generations.

A New York Times Book Review Editors'' Choice A New York Times Bestseller A New York Magazine Best Book of the Year An Economist Best Book of the Year Pulitzer Prize–Winning Author of Gilead Marilynne Robinson has built a sterling reputation as a writer of sharp, subtly moving prose, not only as a major American novelist, but also as a rigorous thinker and incisive essayist. In When I Was a Child I Read Books she returns to and expands upon the themes which have preoccupied her work with renewed vigor. In "Austerity as Ideology," she tackles the global debt crisis, and the charged political and social political climate in this country that makes finding a solution to our financial troubles so challenging. In "Open Thy Hand Wide" she searches out the deeply embedded role of generosity in Christian faith. And in "When I Was a Child," one of her most personal essays to date, an account of her childhood in Idaho becomes an exploration of individualism and the myth of the American West. Clear-eyed and forceful as ever, Robinson demonstrates once again why she is regarded as one of our essential writers.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • A NEW YORK TIMESE NOTABLE BOOK • WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE 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 “[Robinson''s] prose is our flight out, a keen instrument of vision and transcendence.” —O, the Oprah Magazine 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. A luminous and healing book about families, family secrets, and faith from one of America''s most beloved and acclaimed authors. 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.

In the tradition of nineteenth-century novelists who turned to the essay, Marilynne Robinson offers a beautiful and authoritative approach to refining the ideas our culture has handed down to us. Whether considering how the McGuffey readers were inspired by midwestern abolitionists; how creationism, "long owned by the Religious Right," has spurred on contemporary Darwinism; or how John Calvin, who was a Frenchman in Geneva, points to America''s continental origins, Robinson writes with great conviction. Her essays are filled with the excitement of discovery. "Who can imagine how the things we call ideas live in the world," she writes, "or how they change, or how they perish, or how they can be renewed." In these ten essays, Marilynne Robinson brilliantly addresses subjects that have become the territory of specialists - religion, history, the state of society. The writing is "contrarian in method and spirit," as she states in her introduction, but "Who can imagine how the things we call ideas live in the world, or how they change, or how they perish, or how they can be renewed?" In the tradition of nineteenth-century novelists who turned to the essay, Marilynne Robinson offers a beautiful and authoritative approach to refining the ideas our culture has handed down to us. Whether considering how the McGuffey readers were inspired by Midwestern abolitionists; how Creationism, "long owned by the Religious Right," has spurred on contemporary Darwinism; or how John Calvin, who was a Frenchman in Geneva, points to America''s continental origins, Robinson writes meticulously and with great conviction. Her essays are filled with the excitement of discovery.

Winner of the Pen/Hemingway Award A modern classic, Marilynne Robinson''s Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, the eccentric and remote sister of their dead mother. The family house is in the small town of Fingerbone on a glacial lake in the Far West, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck and their mother drove off a cliff to her death. It is a town "chastened by an outsized landscape and extravagant weather, and chastened again by an awareness that the whole of human history had occurred elsewhere." Ruth and Lucille''s struggle toward adulthood beautifully illuminates the price of loss and survival, and the dangerous and deep undertow of transcience.

The Pulitzer Prize--winning author of Lila and Gilead returns with a collection of illuminating essays on theological, political, and contemporary themes. Marilynne Robinson has plumbed the human spirit in her renowned novels, including Lila, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Gilead, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In this new essay collection she trains her incisive mind on our modern political climate and the mysteries of faith. Whether she is investigating how the work of great thinkers about America like Emerson and Tocqueville informs our political consciousness or discussing the way that beauty informs and disciplines daily life, Robinson''s peerless prose and boundless humanity are on full display. What Are We Doing Here? is a call for Americans to continue the tradition of those great thinkers and to remake political and cultural life as "deeply impressed by obligation [and as] a great theater of heroic generosity, which, despite all, is sometimes palpable still."

The spirit of our times can appear to be one of joyless urgency. As a culture we have become less interested in the exploration of the glorious mind, and more interested in creating and mastering technologies that will yield material well-being. But while cultural pessimism is always fashionable, there is still much to give us hope. In The Givenness of Things, the incomparable Marilynne Robinson delivers an impassioned critique of our contemporary society while arguing that reverence must be given to who we are and what we are: creatures of singular interest and value, despite our errors and depredations. Robinson has plumbed the depths of the human spirit in her novels, including the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Lila and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead, and in her new essay collection she trains her incisive mind on our modern predicament and the mysteries of faith. These seventeen essays examine the ideas that have inspired and provoked one of our finest writers throughout her life. Whether she is investigating how the work of the great thinkers of the past, Calvin, Locke, Bonhoeffer--and Shakespeare--can infuse our lives, or calling attention to the rise of the self-declared elite in American religious and political life, Robinson''s peerless prose and boundless humanity are on display. Exquisite and bold, The Givenness of Things is a necessary call for us to find wisdom and guidance in our cultural heritage, and to offer grace to one another.

In this ambitious book, acclaimed writer Marilynne Robinson applies her astute intellect to some of the most vexing topics in the history of human thought—science, religion, and consciousness. Crafted with the same care and insight as her award-winning novels, Absence of Mind challenges postmodern atheists who crusade against religion under the banner of science. In Robinson’s view, scientific reasoning does not denote a sense of logical infallibility, as thinkers like Richard Dawkins might suggest. Instead, in its purest form, science represents a search for answers. It engages the problem of knowledge, an aspect of the mystery of consciousness, rather than providing a simple and final model of reality.By defending the importance of individual reflection, Robinson celebrates the power and variety of human consciousness in the tradition of William James. She explores the nature of subjectivity and considers the culture in which Sigmund Freud was situated and its influence on his model of self and civilization. Through keen interpretations of language, emotion, science, and poetry, Absence of Mind restores human consciousness to its central place in the religion-science debate.

A New York Times bestseller Named a Best Book of 2020 by the Australian Book Review, AV Club, Books-a-Million, Electric Literature, Esquire, the Financial Times, Good Housekeeping (UK), The Guardian, Kirkus Reviews, Literary Hub, the New Statesman, the New York Public Library, NPR, the Star Tribune, and TIME Marilynne Robinson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Humanities Medal, returns to the world of Gilead with Jack, the latest novel in one of the great works of contemporary American fiction Marilynne Robinson’s mythical world of Gilead, Iowa—the setting of her novels Gilead, Home, and Lila, and now Jack—and its beloved characters have illuminated and interrogated the complexities of American history, the power of our emotions, and the wonders of a sacred world. Jack is Robinson’s fourth novel in this now-classic series. In it, Robinson tells the story of John Ames Boughton, the prodigal son of Gilead’s Presbyterian minister, and his romance with Della Miles, a high school teacher who is also the child of a preacher. Their deeply felt, tormented, star-crossed interracial romance resonates with all the paradoxes of American life, then and now. Robinson’s Gilead novels, which have won one Pulitzer Prize and two National Book Critics Circle Awards, are a vital contribution to contemporary American literature and a revelation of our national character and humanity.

Ein kleiner Ort in den Rocky Mountains, Mitte der 1950er. Hier wachsen die Schwestern Ruth und Lucille bei ihrer Großmutter auf. Nach deren Tod übernimmt ihre Tante Sylvie den Haushalt. Und während die verträumte Ruthie sich von der eigenbrötlerischen Art der Tante angezogen fühlt, sehnt sich Lucille nach Normalität. Die beiden werden einander immer fremder ... Eine poetische, gefühlskluge Geschichte über Landstreicherinnen und Heimatlosigkeit, Stille und Anderssein.

Un roman bouleversant sur la famille, les secrets qu''elle recèle, la fuite du temps et la succession des générations. S''articulant autour des questions de l''amour, de la mort et de la foi, ce livre est probablement le chef-d''oeuvre de l''auteur (prix Pulitzer 2005) dans la manière inimitable qu''il a d''incarner les émotions et les affects les plus profonds et les plus universels.

Hjemme udspiller sig i 1956 i Gilead, den lille by i Iowa, hvor også Marilynne Robinsons forrige roman, Gilead, foregik. Denne gang er vi i hjemmet hos pastor Robert Boughton, John Ames'' nærmeste ven. Glory Boughton er i en alder af 38 år modvilligt vendt tilbage til Gilead for at pleje sin døende far. Snart kommer også hendes bror, Jack, hjem - efter at have været bortrejst i tyve år. Jack er den fortabte søn, familiens sorte får, og han har altid været ́en skidt knægt'', som aldrig har kunnet fastholde et job, konstant er på kant med sine omgivelser og sin konservative far - og dog forbliver han det barn, Boughton elsker allerhøjest. Mens Jack forsøger at forsone sig med sin far og fortidens synder, knytter han bånd til Glory, der selv er vendt hjem med et knust hjerte og en turbulent fortid. Hjemme er en bog om familier, om forældre og børn, om kærlig og død, tro og tilgivelse. Romanen er en selvstændig ledsager til Gilead.

Da autora de Gilead, vencedor do prêmio Pulitzer"O raciocínio de Robinson é profético, profundo, eloquente, sucinto, poderoso e oportuno." — The Guardian"Adorei ler Além da razão. Por quê? É sempre um prazer estar na companhia de alguém que leva as ideias a sério." — Siri Hustvedt, Financial TimesNeste livro ambicioso, a aclamada Marilynne Robinson usa seu talento para abordar um tema bastante perturbador — a relação entre ciência, religião e conhecimento. Trabalhado com o mesmo cuidado e discernimento do seu romance premiado — Gilead —, Além da razão desafia os ateus pós-modernos e sua cruzada contra a religião sob a égide da ciência.Na visão da autora, a razão científica não pressupõe a infalibilidade lógica, como talvez seja entendido no discurso de pensadores como Richard Dawkins. Pelo contrário, em sua forma mais pura, a ciência representa a busca por respostas, dedicando-se com afinco ao mistério do conhecimento, mais do que a garantir um modelo da realidade simples e decisivo.Por defender a importância da reflexão individual, Robinson promove o poder e as diversas formas do conhecimento humano, seguindo a tradição de William James. Ela explora a natureza da subjetividade levando em conta a cultura em que Freud estava inserido e como isso influenciou seu modelo de indivíduo e de civilização.Por meio de primorosas interpretações de linguagem, emoção, ciência e poesia, Além da razão põe de volta o conhecimento humano em seu lugar central no debate entre religião e ciência.

The papers of Marilynne Robinson consist of two items: an advance reading copy of The Death of Adam and a draft of Housekeeping.