Marilynne Robinson

As the Reverend John Ames approaches the hour of his own death, he writes a letter to his son chronicling three previous generations of his family, a story that stretches back to the Civil War and reveals uncomfortable family secrets.

Set in the rural town of Gilead, Iowa, in 1961, "Home" is the story of the Boughton family, of the aged Reverend Boughton and of his middle-aged daughter, Glory, who returns to the family home to care for her elderly father after a failed engagement. But it is also the story of Jack Boughton, a troubled but brilliant son and brother, estranged from the family for 20 years. Looking for refuge from a secret he won't reveal, by turns distant and compassionate,...

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...

A collection of essays revisits such themes as the role of faith in modern life, the inadequacy of fact, and the inherent contradictions of human nature.

In celebration of Brown University's 250th anniversary, fifty remarkable, prizewinning writers and artists who went to Brown provide unique stories-many published for the first time-about their adventures on College Hill. Funny, poignant, subversive, and nostalgic, the essays, comics, and poems in this collection paint a vivid picture of college life, from the 1950s to the present, at one of America's most interesting universities.