Home (2008) is the third novel by the prominent American novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson. The novel takes place in the same fictional universe as Robinson’s previous novel, Gilead (2004), which received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In fact, Home unfolds concurrently with Gilead, enabling Robinson to reconsider the events of the earlier novel from a different point of view. Whereas Gilead centered on Reverend John Ames, Home focuses on Ames’s friend and colleague, Reverend Robert Boughton. As Robert’s health deteriorates, two of his eight children return home to Gilead, Iowa. Glory is the youngest child, and she’s now 38. Jack, who has been a troublemaker all his life, is now 43. With Glory and Jack back in their childhood home, nostalgia for the good old days comes up against darker memories. Though much of the novel takes place within the Boughton home, Robinson manages to develop a complex portrait of an entire community. As several critics remarked, Home takes a generous but also unsentimental look at a midwestern town characterized by complacency and lack of moral courage. The novel landed on numerous critics’ best-of-the-year lists, and it also won several prestigious awards, including the 2009 Orange Prize for Fiction.

Purchase

Go to BN.com to get your copy of these helpful resources.