Since the 1981 publication of Marilynne Robinson's novel, Housekeeping, she has
built a sterling reputation not only as a writer of sharp, subtly moving prose,
but also as a rigorous thinker and incisive essayist. In this new collection she
returns to the themes, which have preoccupied her work: the role of faith in mo
dern life, the inadequacy of fact, and the contradictions inherent in human natu
re. Clear-eyed and forceful as ever, Robinson demonstrates once again why she is
regarded as a modern rhetorical master.
