I told you last night that I might leave someday, and you asked me "Where will you go?", and I said "To stay with our good God", and you asked me "Why?", and I said, "Because I am old", and you said, "I don't think you are old". And you took my hand and said, "You are not that old", as if that solved the issue. I told you, "You can have a life very different from mine, and different from the life you had with me, and that would be wonderful - there are many ways to live a good life". And you said, "Mom told me that too". And then you said, "Don't laugh!", because you thought I was laughing at you. You raised your hand and touched your fingers to my lips and gave me that look I have not seen on any other face, except your mother's face. It is an expression of angry pride, very passionate and stern. I am always a little surprised that my eyebrows are not singed after such a look. I will miss it...

A deeply human novel about the passage of time, the beauty of simplicity, and the grandeur of the soul! A charming hymn to the richness and secret depths of everyday life...

"Gilead" is written as a letter from a seventy-six-year-old pastor of a small town in Iowa to his young son, so that he can read it when he grows up. John Ames, the hero of the book, has heart problems and knows that he does not have much time left, so he wants to bequeath to his son both the history of his family and some further admonitions. This letter also becomes an opportunity for its author to reflect on his past life and his complicated relationship with Jack, his godson and the son of his best friend, another pastor in the town named Boughton. Ames constantly struggles with issues of doubt and faith, human transgression and forgiveness, suffering and grace. He continually turns to thinkers of the past in order to find the meaning of life...

Marilynne Robinson was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award (USA), and the Ambassador Book Award for "Gilead".