MARILYNNE ROBINSON'S Lila (FSG) is an enthralling meditation on belief, suffering, and grace. The story of a woman raised without a home, a family, or God ultimately becomes a celebration of what it means to be alive.
Robinson's readers will recognize the title character and her husband, the Reverend John Ames, from the Pulitzer Prize–winning Gilead, set in the small Iowa town of that name, as well as from the 2008 novel Home. This time around, however, we first meet Lila as a child, when she is spirited away from nightmarish neglect by a woman named Doll, who can't give her much besides her love. For years after Doll disappears, Lila's most cherished possession is the knife Doll used to kill a man to protect her.
Before meeting Ames, Lila has hardly…
You're reading a preview of
O, The Oprah (Digital) - 1 Issue, November 2014