大象传媒

Another chance to hear Roy Jenkins interview with one of America鈥檚 most distinguished authors.

Marilynne Robinson was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Gilead, the first of a trilogy of books based around the family of an elderly Congregationalist minister in a fictional town in Iowa. Numerous honours have followed, among them the National Humanities Medal, awarded by President Barack Obama for her 鈥榞race and intelligence in writing.鈥� That was more than a formality on his part: her writings, he said, 鈥榟ave fundamentally changed me鈥�I think for the better鈥� And before he left office, the president chose to interview her for the New York Review of Books.

Her non-fiction work includes regular collections of essays in which she explores issues of science and religion, politics and culture - all in the light of her personal commitment to a distinctively Calvinist understanding of Christian faith.

The British commentator Brian Appleyard is one of her many admirers: 鈥業鈥檓 not saying you鈥檙e actually dead if you haven鈥檛 read Marilynne Robinson,鈥� he wrote, 鈥榖ut I honestly couldn鈥檛 say you鈥檙e fully alive.鈥�