In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, an account of himself and his forebears. Ames is the son of an Iowa preacher and the grandson of a minister who, as a young man in Maine, saw a vision and came west to Kansas to fight for abolition. Reverend Ames tells a story of the sacred bonds between fathers and sons, which are tested in his tender and strained relationship with his best friend's wayward son. Gilead is the long-hoped-for second novel by one of our finest writers, a hymn of praise and lamentation to the God-haunted existence that Reverend Ames loves passionately, and from which he will soon part.

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.