2006 All Iowa Reads Selection -- Gilead: The Novel by Marilynne Robinson

Marilynne Robinson's 2005 Pulitzer Prize winning book, Gilead:  The Novel, was selected for All Iowa Reads 2006. 

The book also won the 2004 National Book Critics Circle Award and was selected for the 2004 New York Times Notable Books list and the 2004 Booklist Editors’ Choice – Best Fiction list.

According to Publishers Weekly, fans of Robinson's acclaimed debut Housekeeping (1981) will find that the long wait has been worth it. From the first page of her second novel, the voice of Rev. John Ames mesmerizes with his account of his life—and that of his father and grandfather. Ames is 77 years old in 1956, in failing health, with a much younger wife and six-year-old son; as a preacher in the small Iowa town where he spent his entire life, he has produced volumes and volumes of sermons and prayers, "[t]rying to say what was true." But it is in this mesmerizing account—in the form of a letter to his young son, who he imagines reading it when he is grown—that his meditations on creation and existence are fully illumined.

Housekeeping was the winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award.  Robinson has written two other books of nonfiction, Mother Country (1989) and The Death of Adam (1998).  She teaches at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

All Iowa Reads is a program of the Iowa Center for the Book, State Library of Iowa.  The purpose of All Iowa Reads is to encourage Iowans statewide to read and talk about a single title in the same year. Libraries and other local organizations will plan programs and book discussion groups to talk about the selection. 

Criteria for the selection of the annual All Iowa Reads book are that the book 1) must be available in paperback, large print and unabridged audio; 2) lends itself to in-depth discussion and raises universal social issues relevant to Iowans; 3) is accessible to adults and high school age youth; and 4) is a recent publication that has not been widely read.  It is desirable, but not required, that the book has an Iowa or Midwest connection.

For more information, visit the Iowa Center for the Book web site at www.iowacenterforthebook.org, or call 1-800-248-4483; (515) 281-4105.