Synopsis
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.
About Marilynne Robinson
See more books from this AuthorRobinson provides Lila with enough back story to fuel several other books, her prose richly suggestive and poetic as she evokes a bygone time before “everyone…started getting poorer...Fans of Robinson will wish the book were longer—and will surely look forward to the next.
Read Full Review of Lila: A Novel | See more reviews from KirkusThis third of three novels set in the fictional plains town of Gilead, Iowa, is a masterpiece of prose in the service of the moral seriousness that distinguishes Robinson’s work.
Read Full Review of Lila: A Novel | See more reviews from Publishers WeeklyIn the end, “Lila” is not so much a novel as a meditation on morality and psychology, compelling in its frankness about its truly shocking subject: the damage to the human personality done by poverty, neglect and abandonment.
Read Full Review of Lila: A Novel | See more reviews from NY Times...Writing in lovely, angular prose that has the high loneliness of an old bluegrass tune, Ms. Robinson has created a balladlike story about two lost people...
Read Full Review of Lila: A Novel | See more reviews from NY TimesSome readers accuse Robinson of preaching; others complain when her novels “stray” into politics. But history, moral reform and theology are inextricable from the wonder she expresses and the wisdom she imparts: we can’t have one without the others.
Read Full Review of Lila: A Novel | See more reviews from GuardianYou don’t need an ounce of faith to be stunned and moved by Lila. God has never been so attractive as he is in Robinson’s depiction, but her heart is with the human experience, in all its forms.
Read Full Review of Lila: A Novel | See more reviews from GuardianMost striking of all is the bluesy beauty of the exposition. The novel is told in the third person, but it seamlessly inhabits the motions of Lila’s mind...
Read Full Review of Lila: A Novel | See more reviews from WSJ onlineCompared to the first of two books in this trilogy, the pace now and then seems to languish, and the narratives feels somewhat haphazard. But even without having read the first two volumes, the more you stick with this one, the more reward you'll find - sort of like Lila and her Bible study in this unpretentious and affecting novel.
Read Full Review of Lila: A Novel | See more reviews from NPRLila’s is a sad and sordid story, but what shines from it is the love of Doll, who, however hard and poor she might have been...was “the one who made her live.”
Read Full Review of Lila: A Novel | See more reviews from Star TribuneRobinson is a glorious writer, and her sentences, as much as their content, are a consistent pleasure. This novel, different in tone from its predecessors, stands beautifully alongside them, expanding our understanding not only of this woman, Lila, and of these people, but of their time and place.
Read Full Review of Lila: A Novel | See more reviews from Financial TimesThe great pleasure of this novel certainly is enhanced by having read its two predecessors, but this graceful story stands fully on its own, an exquisite point of entry into the world of Gilead. Thoughtful readers will want to linger there for a long, deeply satisfying stay.
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelWhat he and this profound and deeply rendered novel have to offer, then, is not reconciliation in a sentimental sense but rather on the most vigorous terms imaginable, in a universe that remains opaque to us, where we must decide for ourselves with only questions to lead the way.
Read Full Review of Lila: A Novel | See more reviews from LA TimesIn Lila, Robinson has made a profound statement about the safety, and therefore absolute necessity, of love. And yet, it being Iowa, there is always the possibility of a storm on the horizon, of things “caught up in the wind as if they were escaping at last, at last, from having to be whatever they were.”
Read Full Review of Lila: A Novel | See more reviews from Globe and MailThat caveat does not diminish Lila’s beauty. Unlike Home, which essentially told the same story as Gilead from a different perspective, without bringing much new to the table, Lila expands the little world Robinson has created. It successfully argues that there are new avenues to follow...
Read Full Review of Lila: A Novel | See more reviews from AV ClubLila, Ames’s late-in-life wife and the eponymous protagonist of Ms Robinson’s most recent novel, is perhaps the richest and most appealing character of the three: fierce, proud and stubborn, but possessed of a bone-deep decency. Boughton and Ames both have deep roots in Gilead, while Lila has no roots at all...
Read Full Review of Lila: A Novel | See more reviews from The EconomistIt's an unsparing look at a simple life that raises not-so-simple questions. Emotionally and intellectually challenging, it's an exploration of faith in God, love, and whatever else it takes to survive.
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelThe examination of characters’ thoughts is nuanced and subtle, and the shifting of time scenes is complex. But the narrative basis is solid, the sentiments deeply felt, and the prose, reflecting this depth and sincerity, is at times beautifully resonant.
Read Full Review of Lila: A Novel | See more reviews from National Post arts...Lila manages to be a sumptuous, graceful, and ultimately life-affirming novel that earns the muted, but convincing happiness of its concluding pages...
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelThe theological motor that powers Lila is the conflict between Ames’s Calvinist idea of souls lost to salvation...but Robinson keeps this aspect subtle. Instead, the human story dominates, resulting in a book that leaves the reader feeling what can only be called exaltation.
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelLila, like Home, is a more knotty work than its predecessor – more fallen and earthy. The graceful moments stand out.
Read Full Review of Lila: A Novel“Lila” doesn’t have quite the moral urgency of “Gilead,” or any character as fiery as John Ames’ grandfather. But it’s a quiet meditation on the nature of salvation, one that casts itself firmly on the side of redemption.
Read Full Review of Lila: A Novel...a paean to the earth, and a witty and transcendent love story—all within a refulgent and resounding novel so beautifully precise and cadenced it wholly transfixes and transforms us.
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelTold in Lila’s own voice, the narrative finds the poetic juncture between her uneducated speech -- she claims at one point to have not known the word “existence” -- and Robinson’s acutely observed and measured prose, resulting in a voice, and a novel, both believable and achingly beautiful.
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelLila is a dark, powerful, uplifting, unforgettable novel. And Robinson’s Gilead trilogy — Gilead, Home and Lila — is a great achievement in American fiction.
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelWhat a rich feast of a novel this might have been had it chosen to explore that conflict wholly! And who better than Robinson, preeminent among contemporary American novelists in addressing the role of the sacred in our lives, to take that on? But the deck feels stacked.
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelIn her gorgeous, unadorned prose, Robinson returns to both a place...and a theme...that have proven to be so fertile. Lila is a stunning and moving exploration of family and faith, and how to find one’s place in the world.
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelLila’s pregnancy grows authentically out of the life histories, Americana and religious doctrine that blend within Robinson’s searching sentences. If Ames and Lila do truly answer the riddle that home poses for them, theirs is a satisfying, touching victory.
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelOh, how I miss the creative energy of “Housekeeping,” Ms. Robinson’s first novel (1980). It came out before the author became a Calvinist, before she began to break down Old Testament stories for intellectual Christians.
Read Full Review of Lila: A Novel"Lila" is the third novel by Marilynne Robinson in a series that began with the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Gilead" and continued with "Home" but it stands gloriously alone, as if the previous two books were merely paving the way for us to meet Lila.
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelRobinson has created a work in "Lila" that's both old-fashioned and contemporary. Timeless. "Lila," though just now hitting the shelves, has already been long-listed for a National Book Award. This is familiar territory for the award-winning Robinson, and no surprise.
Read Full Review of Lila: A Novel...this novel has a sort of untamed savagery to it that sets it ablaze. Something of Lila’s own raw, uncultivated vitality runs through Robinson’s very prose and the result is magnificent.
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelThe courtship between Ames and Lila, slipped, non-chronologically into odd corners of the narrative, is therefore tentative, and then tender, and then trusting, and then true. And, just like Gilead, tinged with heartbreaking beauty.
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelPolitically radical as well as a die-hard Calvinist, Robinson creates a body of work that asks such questions with a compelling urgency unmatched by any American writer since Melville and Dickinson.
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelNo writer can see life whole. There's too much of it, too many sides, to be comprehended by a single vision. But some books give us a sense of such wholeness, and they are precious for it. "Lila" is such a book.
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelThe tales unfold with painstaking care, Robinson does not judge her characters, she allows them to do that themselves. They each appear well aware of their respective shortcomings.
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelI don't like God and I hate it when he has to be part of a work of art. But I don't care, because Lila is just so damnably beautiful.
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelBased on a small amount of fiction, Robinson has achieved a huge reputation and my guess is she is rarely questioned or criticized by her first readers. How very sad. When I closed this sometimes poignant book, I could only feel regret that it isn’t better than it is.
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelMarilynne Robinson knows life is hard and sorrow rampant. But I promise you this. The reverend’s kitchen that snowy day, the two of them together, playing cards as they ride out their fears and the storm, is luminous with grace.
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelYou don’t have to share Robinson’s Christian outlook to appreciate themes of restoration and serenity after life’s struggles. “He looks after the strays. Especially the strays,” Ames declares. Lila might not quite match Gilead or Housekeeping, but it’s a gentle, peaceful read nonetheless.
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelLila is not an easy book to comprehend. The prose is never deliberately obscure but it requires careful reading and re-reading to determine what refers to whom. The examination of characters’ thoughts is nuanced and subtle, and the shifting of time scenes is complex. But the narrative basis is solid...
Read Full Review of Lila: A Novel | See more reviews from National Post arts...Lila is a moving expression of the mysteries of existence that is destined to become an American classic.
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelRead alone, Lila is a beautiful work of fiction. It is a stunning tale of acceptance, trust and hesitation. Read as part of a trio with Home and Gilead, the book becomes an exquisitely nuanced work.
Read Full Review of Lila: A Novel...the unfolding of Lila’s past, as well as her mind, through language, is unlike anything we’ve seen in American fiction for some time.
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelThe book is, like Robinson’s other books, a little jewel. Her finely crafted text sometimes takes on a poetic feel and she is a master of those moving denouements that bring a tear to the eyes.
Read Full Review of Lila: A NovelAn aggregated and normalized score based on 1314 user ratings from iDreamBooks & iTunes