Jack

After Gilead, At home and Lila, Marilynne Robinson returns to the world of Gilead with Jack, the fourth component of one of the most important contemporary novel cycles. Jack tells the story of John Ames Boughton, who was already one of the leads in At home. Prodigal son of Reverend Boughton, a victim of alcohol and his tendency of self-destruction, Jack lives apart from his family in St. Louis, the main city of Missouri, in the years after World War II. There he survives with small jobs, some robberies and with the help of his brother Teddy. He moves between unbelieving cynicism and suicidal tendencies. But he meets Della Miles, an African-American high school teacher, and also the daughter of a preacher, with a clear mind, a generous spirit and an independent will. Della and Jack fall in love in a society where racial discrimination prevails and laws and customs make intermarriage difficult. Deep and moving, her beautiful and tense story is one of Robinson's greatest achievements.