"Marilynne Robinson, one of the greatest novelists of our time, returns to the town of Gilead in an unforgettable story of a girlhood lived on the fringes of society in fear, awe, and wonder. Lila, homeless and alone after years of roaming the countryside, steps inside a small-town Iowa church-the only available shelter from the rain-and ignites a romance and a debate that will reshape her life. She becomes the wife of a minister, John Ames, and begins...

A man who suffered horrific abuse as a child speaks of his adult life and how he learned to love, trust, and pursue his dreams.

A letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born- a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam- and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is...

"'Abuse' is an ugly word. And to many people, abuse is an ugly reality of life. This book tells the stories of two men and two women whose lives have been painfully marked by abuse. As a child, Kenyon was beaten first by his mother, later by his father and stepmother. Dawn grew up surrounded by abusive people, then married a violent man. Ryan's stepfather terrorized his entire family, physically and emotionally. Eunice was only a child when an adult...

"When Silvia's mother called her home to Peru, she knew something finally had to give. A Latinx hero in the elite macho tech world of Silicon Valley, privately, she was hanging by a thread. She was deep in the throes of alcoholism, hiding her sexuality from her family, and repressing the abuse she'd suffered as a child. Her visit to Peru would become a turning point in her life. Silvia started climbing. Something about the brute force required for...