Intensely drawn characters bring story home to readers

Home. By Marilynne Robinson, Virago, €23

‘The past was a very fine thing, in its place,” reflects Glory, one of the central characters in Marilynne Robinson’s new novel, but ���‘to have it overrun its bounds . . . and become present and possibly future . . . this was a thing to be regretted’’.

The youngest of eight children, Glory has returned home to care for her dying widowed father, the Reverend Robert ...