Lila
An Oprah's Book Club Pick
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Set in the same fictional Iowa town from which her Pulitzer Prize–winning novel Gilead takes its name, Marilynne Robinson’s prequel Lila is a beautifully realised story of love and grace. When Lila, a homeless drifter, takes shelter in a church, she crosses paths with John Ames, a Protestant minister and widower. Separated by several years and vastly different life experiences, the two embark on an unlikely romance. In simple but incandescent prose, Robinson weaves together Lila’s past and present to haunting effect.
