Author Description

THIS HIGHLY ACCLAIMED and award-winning novel is the story of two orphans: Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, growing up haphazardly under the care of various bumbling relatives. The two girls finally end up in a small town nestled next to a glacial lake in Idaho, under the guardianship of Sylvie, their odd and rather remote aunt. Ruth’s and Lucille’s struggle to define themselves as women beautifully illuminates the price of loss and survival, and the dangerous undertow of transience. Written in Robinson’s vibrantly poetic prose, Housekeeping reaches the orphan in all of us and transforms everyday life into a sacred experience.PRAISE FOR HOUSEKEEPING“Brilliantly portrays the impermanence of all things, especially beauty and happiness.” Time“So precise, so distilled, so beautiful that one doesn’t want to miss any pleasure it might yield.”The New York Times Book Review“Extraordinary.... Marilynne Robinson uses language so exquisitely.... Every sentence [is]made just right.... Housekeeping proves that fine fiction is still being written.”The Washington Post Book World“I found myself reading slowly, then more slowly―this is not a novel to be hurried through, for every sentence is a delight.” Doris Lessing