'Robinson's chief love and guiding question is humanity . . . The reason she can go on and on answering this question, and the reason it is worth reading every word, is that the answer is elusive - this "great mystery of being" is, for her, a source of childlike wonder and no other writer in English can write wonder like she can' Sophie Elmhirst, New Statesman Marilynne Robinson, internationally acclaimed author of Housekeeping , Gilead and Home , is not only a writer of sharp, subtly moving prose, but also a rigorous thinker and incisive essayist. In this luminous new collection, she returns to the themes that are central to her bestselling novels: the place literature has in life, the role of faith, the contradictions inherent in human nature. Clear-eyed, eloquent and profoundly insightful, with these essays Robinson demonstrates once again why she is one of our best-loved writers. 'Like Wollstonecraft, Robinson's intellect is threatening. And if it can threaten us into action, is all the greater for that' Lesley McDowell, Independent on Sunday 'Rich, uncompromising essays . . . their rewards should be for anyone, of any faith' Emily Stokes, Financial Times 'Robinson flexes her considerable academic muscle . . . In a world that too often dumbs down, Robinson is to be celebrated for her rigorous erudition' Helen Davies, Sunday Times