America’s greatest living writer returns to the Iowa setting of her last two novels—and, as she did with Home (2008), makes both of those books seem deeper and richer than they were to begin with.

This time we getthe story of Lila Ames, the drifter who marries kindly pastor John Ames. Lila struggles to understand how her simple, safe marriage can be reconciled with the violence she knows is in the world.

Robinson, meanwhile, confines herself wholly to words and allusions her barely-schooled narrator would know and writes some of the grandest prose of her career. (Farrar Straus Giroux)

About the Author

  • Phil Christman teaches English at the University of Michigan and attends St. Clare's Episcopal Church in Ann Arbor, Mich.

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