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Gilead
- Narrated by: Tim Jerome
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
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Gilead
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Publisher's Summary
Pulitzer Prize, Fiction, 2005
National Book Critics Circle Award, Fiction, 2005
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 Iowan preacher and the grandson of a minister who, as a young man in Maine, saw a vision of Christ bound in chains and came west to Kansas to fight for abolition: He "preached men into the Civil War", then, at age 50, became a chaplain in the Union Army, losing his right eye in battle. Reverend Ames writes to his son about the tension between his father, an ardent pacifist, and his grandfather, whose pistol and bloody shirts, concealed in an army blanket, may be relics from the fight between the abolitionists and those settlers who wanted to vote Kansas into the union as a slave state. And he tells a story of the sacred bonds between fathers and sons, which are tested in his tender and strained relationship with his namesake, John Ames Boughton, his best friend's wayward son.This is also the tale of another remarkable vision, not a corporeal vision of God but the vision of life as a wondrously strange creation. It tells how wisdom was forged in Ames's soul during his solitary life, and how history lives through generations, pervasively present even when betrayed and forgotten.
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.
What the critics say
"The long wait has been worth it....Robinson's prose is beautiful, shimmering, and precise....Destined to become her second classic." ( Publishers Weekly)
"[ Gilead] is so serenely beautiful, and written in a prose so gravely measured and thoughtful, that one feels touched with grace just to read it." ( The Washington Post Book World)
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What listeners say about Gilead
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2019-12-14
Fantastic novel!
A beautiful book of great wisdom! The story is very moving and deeply connects readers to their humanity.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- anonymous
- 2019-01-21
Beautiful writing. the feel of a sweeping epic wit
Beautiful, poetic writing. The feel and depth of a sweeping epic without the length. Perfect choice of narrators.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Richard Penner
- 2019-04-22
Don’t bother
It’s an old Christian pastor writing reminiscent letters. The story does not build from there.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2018-03-31
this book is so annoying.
I kept wondering when something would actually happen. the musings of an old preacher living inside his head. Trying at best
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Worthless Golden nuggets
- 2022-09-07
I don’t get the hype.
Found it boring and without depth. I try to read all Pulitzer wins for fiction and this is by far my least favourite book out of any I’ve read I. The last 2 years.
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