Critical Praise

"A beautiful work --- demanding, grave and lucid... Robinson’s words have a spiritual force that’s very rare in contemporary fiction."

—James Wood, New York Times Book Review

"Moving, compelling, and fascinating... Gilead is full of passages that beg to be read aloud, complex thoughts and emotions expressed with a felicity as engaging as it is illuminating. Most of all, in this book, through the wide-open eyes of her aging hero, Robinson manages to convey the miracle of existence itself."

—Merle Rubin, Los Angeles Times

"Radiant... This is a book to be savored."

—Elizabeth Taylor, Chicago Tribune

"Novels work in varied ways; some take 50 pages or more to crank up to their operating temperature, and others seem to radiate their heat at once, establishing an ambient level of energy that will characterize the book to its end. Gilead is such a book, a searching and tender call-and-response as a preacher facing death tries to anticipate what he should impart of life to his young son... Its measured and generous narrative voice speaks not only from the pulpit, but from the pews as well."

——Art Winslow, Chicago Tribune