How long is it?
256 pages in the Picador 2006 paperback edition.
Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Historical Fiction
Gilead
Highly regardedPulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2005Reading facts
✓ Checked- Reading effort
- 60 / 100High
- Length
- 256 pagesPicador · 2006
- Reading time
- 5 hat 50 pages an hour ·
- Pace
- Slow
- Emotional intensity
- 4 / 5
About 5 h · at 30 minutes a day, about 11 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
About the book
In Gilead, Iowa, in 1956, elderly minister John Ames writes a letter for his young son to read after his death. Facing heart trouble, he records a family history divided between his grandfather’s militant opposition to slavery and his father’s pacifism, alongside memories of solitude before his marriage to Lila. The return of his friend Robert Boughton’s son Jack brings a resentment he struggles to reconcile with his faith.
Reader notes
Quiet, intimate and sometimes wry, the novel unfolds as one continuing letter, following the turns of Ames’s thoughts. Memories and small daily observations open into sustained theological reflection; the pace is unhurried, and much of the action consists of a man examining his own conscience.
How it reads
- Writing style
- Essayistic · Lyrical · Poetic
- Tone
- Intimate · Philosophical · Reflective · Wistful
- Structure
- Episodic · Nonlinear
- Driven by
- Ideas · Relationships · Voice
- Point of view
- Epistolary · First person
- Setting
- Gilead, Iowa
Reading complexity
- Writing
- 4 / 5
- Ideas
- 4 / 5
- Structure
- 3 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 2 / 5
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Themes
- Family
- Legacy
- Memory
- Mortality
- Redemption
- Religion and faith
Content notes
- Violence
- Mild
- Sexual content
- Mild
- Swearing
- Mild
- Substance use
- Mild
- Abuse
- Mild
- Self-harm or suicide
- None
Standing and awards
Highly regarded
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2005
- National Book Critics Circle Award, 2004
- PEN/Faulkner Award shortlist, 2005
- Los Angeles Times Book Prizes finalist, 2004
- NYT 10 Best Books, 2004
- Pulitzer Prize — Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2005
- National Book Critics Circle Award — National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, 2004
Series and reading order
Gilead
- 1Gilead · This book · 2004
Questions readers ask
Which edition is shown here?
Picador · 2006 · Paperback. ISBN 9780312424404.
What is the order of books in Gilead?
1. Gilead.
How long does it take to read Gilead?
About 5 hours at 50 pages an hour, based on the 256-page Picador edition. Dense books can take longer.
About the author
Marilynne Robinson
Marilynne Robinson is an American novelist and essayist whose fiction gives sustained attention to faith, conscience, family obligation, and rural life. Her best-known novels, Housekeeping and Gilead, display distinct aspects of her range: Housekeeping builds an atmospheric story around absence and unsettled belonging, while Gilead uses an aging minister’s reflective first-person voice to approach theological and historical questions through family relationships. Home and Lila revisit the Iowa community of Gilead from other perspectives, examining how estrangement, loyalty, and vulnerability shape moral understanding. Across these novels, Robinson’s lyrical, often dense prose remains closely attuned to voice and character. She also writes essays and reviews, with work appearing in The New York Review of Books as well as Harper’s and The Paris Review. From 1991 until her retirement in 2016, she taught at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. In her fiction, belief and ethical inquiry remain grounded in the pressures of domestic and communal life.
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Edition and details
- Publisher
- Picador
- Publication year
- 2006
- Format
- Paperback
- Pages
- 256
- ISBN
- 9780312424404
- Edition language
- English
- Original language
- English
- First published
- 2004
- Genres and form
- Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Historical Fiction · Religion & Spirituality · Literary fiction · Psychological fiction
- Editions
- 14
- Languages
- 3 (English, Spanish, Chinese)
The catalog does not yet include a matching edition. Details may differ between editions.