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* From the author of the magnificent, award-winning GILEAD comes a masterpiece novel that returns to the people and places of Gilead

Jack Broughton, prodigal son, has returned to the town of Gilead, to attempt to make peace with his father and sister Glory.

In theory, this book should work the same magic as its predecessor - the telling of a man's life in prose so gentle and limpid, that it's like watching a paper flower unfold in water, one petal at a time. But this time the magic is lost. Where Gilead allowed John Ames to tell his own story, so we were able to immerse ourselves in his world view, to let him seep into our consciousness like ink, Jack Broughton's tale is told from the outside, mainly by his sister Glory. The man's a cipher anyway - a drunk, a drifter, a serial disappointer of his father - so keeping us outside him makes the whole thing an exercise in the same bafflement Jack's relatives feel about his inability to make anything of his life. In Gilead, the spaces Robinson created with her prose were big enough for the reader to insert their own conclusions, but not so large we lost the sense of what the story was about. In Home, The gaps are so large that making the jump requires an effort too large to be pleasant. Instead of being carried along, I felt becalmed in the unhappy swamps of Jack Broughton's failures, a place I really didn't want to spend much time in.

It's telling that the gap between Robinson's first book - Good Housekeeping - and Gilead, was twenty four years. Then after the hysterical success of Gilead, Home appears after a gestation of only two years. The pressure on Robinson to repeat the trick of Gilead must have been immense. What a pity, because she is capable of real art, but art takes time and patience to achieve and it doesn't look like she was allowed enough of either.

If your reading time is snatched in short chunks on the daily commute, Home is probably not the book to choose.

There's a real stillness, like meditation, in this story of a prodigal son's return, that demands a reader's absolute attention. Any other writer would probably find lots to say in a romping, page-turning way, about Jack Broughton's colourful past and his return to the family home where his dying father is being cared for by his sister. Glory, the sister, has also returned and has endured her own suffering.

But there are no big dramas here, no intense and meaningful conversations. Everything we learn is through the medium of polite, almost incidental conversation or through Glory's internal anxieties about not upsetting her father and brother. It's a slow read - very little seems to happen, but somehow it pulls you right in so that you're lost in it. It's a book that afterwards you long to talk about with someone else who's read it.

But I found it too depressing to say I loved it. And ultimately, I couldn't sympathise much with the characters either. The father was horrific in his passive and stubborn control over his grown-up offspring. Even Jack never escaped the old man's spiritual dominance despite his efforts to lose himself in drink, prison and a botched suicide attempt.

Jack, a good man, the black sheep, is full of self pity - and too much the self-consciously misunderstood victim to be really likeable. Then there's poor put-upon Glory whose uncomplaining martyrdom goes TOO FAR. At one point she likens her home to the Old Curiosity Shop with its ancient crumbling clutter, but Home reminded me a little of Dickens' novel in its daughter-father relationship.

I like Marilynne Robinson's idea to write two novels with the same characters and situations from different perspectives, a bit like Middlemarch. I loved Gilead, Home's partner story, when I read it a few years ago - now I want to read it again to see if I still feel the same way.

"Home" is a subtle and moving exploration of relationships between parents and siblings, and the deeply embedded nostalgic memories of one's childhood which return in adult life, perhaps particularly for those who are "less successful", with too much time on their hands. It is written from the viewpoint of Glory, the oversensitive and unworldly youngest daughter of the retired Reverend Boughton, for whom she has returned to care in his old age after the collapse of her long, clearly doomed engagement. Unexpectedly, after an absence of twenty years, her brother Jack also returns home, an outsider, an alcoholic drifter from his youth, yet still retaining the power to attract people with his charm and flashes of perceptiveness. The human flaws and contradictions in the main characters held my interest - not least the pious yet manipulative old father, who in some distorted way loved his most wayward son the most, because he provided a "real cross to bear". There was also the inference that Jack's questioning agnostic spirit had somehow been crushed by the stifling religion of his upbringing. I enjoyed the implication that Jack, concerned about the race riots in the south, was less prejudiced than his godly father who had not thought to question the bigotry in which he had been raised.

Although this book could have been unbearably sad, this was countered by the wry humour of Glory's private thoughts, and by some drily witty dialogue.

I sympathise with some of the reservations of other readers. Having made its point, the book did "go on a bit" although you could argue that it reflected the slow rhythm of life in rural Iowa. In the same vein, the focus on the minute details of living - cooking, cleaning and maintaining clothes when one is very poor, gave the book realism. I also liked the way in which some key facts are touched upon so delicately that you could miss them if you tried to read too fast, or did not trouble to "tune in" to the wording, which is quite convoluted at times, almost "nineteenth century" in style yet very lucid at other points.

It is true that the self-absorption of the three main characters was wearing at times. There were a few practical queries. Wouldn't Jack's sudden appearance after twenty years have created more of an impact? Surely the siblings would have come flooding back to see him? If their respected old father was fading into senility wouldn't that have brought them back as well?

The book dragged somewhat in the middle for me. As relations between Glory and Jack improved I feared I was reading a kind of Polyanna-cum-Little Women for adults. Jack's reputation for being an alcoholic and a thief seemed a little exaggerated. But the tension from Glory's ongoing dread over her brother's imminent downfall was proved justified. The pace improved towards the end with an effective final twist, although I felt that Glory's final observations were a little schmalzy.

This is a well-written and thought-provoking book which encourages me to read "Gilead" although on a superficial view the latter appeals to me less. Although "Home" can be enjoyed by an agnostic/atheist I am not sure the same can be said for Gilead.....

This is a stunning piece of writing, an indepth look at a small family group with a background of alienation and the concepts of sin and redemption, but I found it tedious. Do not buy this if you want a page turner! I am also told that it would have been more interesting if I had read Gilead first which deals with the same group from a different persons perspective.

this - the follow up to the stunning Gilead - is a beautifully written novel by an extremely talented writer. if you are looking for all-action page turners this is not for you . If however you feel the need for a novel that makes you think and appreciate the writers craft this novel comes highly recommended