The novel of the year for me was Lila by Marilynne Robinson, revisiting the fictional Gilead of her three previous novels. The prose, as always, is magnificent, pitch-perfect, carrying a moral authority, a gravitas and a spiritual depth. There really is nobody else writing like this
Alan Spence
Herald
Intricate and beautiful
William Leith
Evening ... Read moreStandard
One of the finest writers in America
The Economist
Lila was the book of books this year, an amazing achievement
Todd McEwen
Sunday Herald
Lila by Marilynne Robinson is the heartbreaking conclusion to her Gilead trilogy
Robert McCrum
Observer
Exquisitely observed, an ultimately optimistic journey through the corrosive power of shame to divide and distort
Naomi Alderman
Observer
My novel of the year can only be Lila by the inimitable Marilynne Robinson . . .my favourite living author and this once again demonstrates her remarkable gift for psychological depth
Salley Vickers
Observer
The giant themes and big questions that sit beneath the surface of Lila's incredibly moving story are compelling
Amma Asante
Observer
Subtle shifts of loyalties, strange moral priorities make [Robinson's] books compellingly powerful
Joan Bakewell
New Statesman
Her questioning books express wonder: they are enlightening, in the best sense, passionately contesting our facile, recycled understanding of ourselves and of our world
Sarah Churchwell
Guardian
Mesmerising . . . reminiscent of the great Victorian novelists . . . Robinson's exquisitely wrought prose resonates
Mail on Sunday
Lila has a power beyond words
Stylist
As a reader you feel very well looked after by Marilynne Robinson: you are knocked out by the weight of thought, the care, the worry she puts into her work. You find yourself wandering into vast new rooms, as if you're in a fabulous museum you've dreamt up for your own pleasure. There's really no one else writing like this today . . . Lila is just so damnably beautiful
Herald
The Gilead novels provide insights into a people whose fates are bound to the land they live on. Iowa must be proud to have such a chronicler among them
Sarah Franklin
Sunday Express
Lila is a deeply affecting exploration of existence and love
List
Robinson's writing can light up consciousness, and make even the most passing thoughts feel indelible. Her older sister in American literature is Emily Dickinson
Prospect
Robinson explores eternity, and she does so in a quiet, ruminative style that takes over your heart as well as your head. Once you've fallen under her spell, she's not just mesmerising but indispensable
Maggie Fergusson
Intelligent Life (The Economist)
Searching and full of grace
Daily Telegraph
Told with measured and absorbing elegance, this account of the growing love and trust between Lila and Reverend Ames is touching and convincing.
Scotland on Sunday
Robinson has made a world so palpable and full that each book can stand alone...Taken together, these books will surely be known as one of the great achievements of contemporary literature
Observer
A sumptuous, graceful, and ultimately life-affirming novel
James Kidd
Independent on Sunday
Lila is a deeply affecting exploration of existence, love and the inevitability of loneliness. And although enriched by the two preceding books, it has the strength, beauty and originality to be read, enjoyed and appreciated as a standalone work. Written in beautiful, poetic prose, it's a remarkable achievement
List
This third novel in the sequence is, in many ways, the most adventurous of all . . . Lila is the work of an exceptional novelist at the peak of her capacity
Rowan Williams
New Statesman
Measured and lyrical; the sound of this book is akin at times to the Cormac McCarthy of The Road . . . Robinson writes brilliantly about the way people dance warily around each other, never quite coinciding, stricken with longing and love
Literary Review
There is no one quite like this American writer, or quite as good as her . . . extraordinarily fluent and pitch perfect prose
Tablet
Robinson is a glorious writer . . . This novel, different in tone from its predecessors, stands beautifully alongside them
Claire Messud
Financial Times
Although Lila revisits the characters of Robinson's previous books, Gilead, a Pulitzer prizewinner, and Home, a finalist in the American National Book Awards, and brings a certain completeness to their journeys, the book stands well on its own as a powerful search for the meaning of life as well as a touching and unlikely story of love and, ultimately, hope
The Times
Tinged with heartbreaking beauty
Scotsman
Deeply moving, almost transformative . . . frank and direct, but occasionally moved to ecstasy by the spirit
Sunday Times
Lila is a really beautiful book: beautiful prose, beautiful story; morally beautiful too. After reading it the world seems more dazzling, fuller of wonder and mystery than it did before, as if you were newly in love. I wish I could persuade everyone who ever buys a book to read this one
Cressida Connolly
Spectator
This superb novel can only add to [Robinson's] already stratospherically high reputation
Daily Mail
Robinson brings [the story] to pulsating life in prose of great and luminous beauty . . . a book that leaves the reader feeling what can only be called exaltation
Neel Mukherjee
Independent
One of the greatest living novelists . . . [Lila is] just as wise, moving and genuine as its predecessors
Harper's Bazaar
A masterpiece . . . Lila is a superb creation
Publishers Weekly
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