The typical book club is accustomed to picking a single book to read for an allotted time period, but globally revered talk show host/television producer/actress/author/philanthropist, Oprah Winfrey, has taken one step further. Her latest picks for the book club she heads are the four books of Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead series: Gilead (2004), Home (2008), Lila (2014), and Jack (2020).

Her statement in a press release is as follows: “I’m thrilled to tell you that my new Oprah’s Book Club selection is not one book but four books. As I was recently reading author Marilynne Robinson’s latest novel, ‘Jack,’ I thought it would be wonderful to explore her entire Gilead universe through these four novels. I am looking forward to going on this journey with our Book Club community over the coming months.”

Among Robinson’s many awards are two Pulitzers, a National Medal for the Humanities, and President Obama’s devotion, but this is her first time as ‘an Oprah-anointee’. Robinson commented that: “Oprah Winfrey is a singular voice in this country and in the world,” and that “it is wonderful and amazing that my books will have the kind of attention only she could bring to them.”

(Article extracted from The Literary Hub with revisions to the headline and text by Sakshi Selvanathan).