Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and Lucille, orphans growing up in the small desolate town of Fingerbone in the vast northwest of America.
Abandoned by a succession of relatives, the sisters find themselves in the care of Sylvie, the remote and enigmatic sister of their dead mother. Steeped in imagery of the bleak wintry landscape around them, the sisters’ struggle towards adulthood is powerfully portrayed in a novel about loss, loneliness and transience.
‘A novel of quite exceptional subtlety . . . as quietly humorous as it is heartbreakingly sad. Marilynne Robinson’s writing calls to be read slowly and carefully, because it is painstakingly suggestive and evocative.’ Evening Standard
Life with Aunt Sylvie
Once in a blue moon an encounter with a new book can be like falling in love – you just know, instinctively, that you’ve found a voice that’s entirely sympathetic, and that you want to spend...
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