Jack by Marilynne Robinson - Spoiler Alert!

I finished this book this morning and almost cried - because it had a happy ending! Sorry if that's a spoiler, hope my warning helped. I was so convinced it would end badly that it was a wonderful surprise when it didn't. There was a huge amount of sadness around Jack himself and I felt that his grip on life might give way at any time. I'm sure life wasn't going to be a bed of roses for the couple, but hopefully with each other's support they would get by, flourish, even.

This is the fourth and latest book in the Gilead series and I can't recommend them too highly. Marilynne Robinson writes so beautifully and with such compassion towards her characters that you can't help but feel the same towards them. I heard her speak at the Edinburgh Book Festival a few years ago and it emerged that she doesn't revise her books at all. She waits until they are ready in her head and then sets them down as we now read them. There were six years between the third Gilead book, Lila, and this one, so that's a lot of thinking time. I wonder if she is writing another now. I hope she is.