This book had been at the edges of my reading mind for a long time. Eventually I have read it. Gilead is a real place, a mountainous area in Palestine and it is an imagined small town in Iowa, USA. Iowa is in the mid-west. It is a flyover state i.e. tourists fly from the east coast to the west coast. Why would they stop in Iowa? As with many states in the area it has a complicated history with slavery and those who were abolitionist, running right through into the middle of the 20th century.
The author has written her book (and there are several subsequent volumes) in the form of a letter from an aged father to his young son. In essence it is an unusual form of an autobiography with plenty of opportunity for reflection and hindsight. I found the book hard going to start with but by the end I had warmed to it and felt quite charmed by the kindness of Reverend John Ames, the main character whose letter it is.
This book is a Pulitzer Prize winner, a sort of American equivalent to the Booker, and I can see why. Marilynne Robinson shows enormous skill in constructing the shape of this narrative and is able to make the reader feel sympathy and in some cases empathy for those who make their way through the story. Impressive.