Glory Boughton, age thirty-eight, has returned to Gilead to care for her dying father. Soon her brother, Jack, the prodigal son of the family, gone for twenty years, comes home too, looking for refuge and to try to make peace with a past littered with tormenting trouble and pain. Jack is a bad boy from childhood, an alcoholic who cannot hold a job, perpetually at odds with his surroundings and with his traditionalist father. Yet he remains Reverend Boughton’s most beloved child. Brilliant, beguiling, lovable, and wayward, Jack forges an intense bond with Glory and engages painfully with John Ames, his godfather and namesake.
In this companion piece to her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, GILEAD, author Marilynne Robinson reworks the parable of the Prodigal Son through the eyes of Reverend Robert Boughton. The gifted Maggi-Meg Reed captures the world-weary tone of the characters as life ebbs from the failing but still faithful Robert. Reed shines brightest as Glory, the daughter who comes home to care for her father. Almost as affecting is Reed's portrayal of Jack, the beat-down preacher's kid who has fallen from grace. At times, Reed allows such overwhelming heartbreak to seep into her voice that the narrative is hard to listen to, but don't give up. The uplifting ending and affirmation of faith are worth the trip home. R.O. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
About the Author
Marilynne Robinson is the author of the modern classic Housekeeping - winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award - and two books of nonfiction. Housekeeping was made into a film directed by Bill Forsyth. Robinson teaches at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.
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