The audio recording will be made available to the public from October 19 through October 29.
Actor-writer-director Ethan Hawke will bring Marilynne Robinson's beloved novel Gilead to life in a special audio recording that will be made available to the public from October 19 through October 29 at www.92y.org/gilead.
The recording was commissioned and produced by the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center, which has hosted readings by many of the world's best-known novelists, poets and playwrights since 1939. Gilead takes the form of a letter being written by an aging preacher to his young son and is an intimate tale of three generations of Iowa's Ames family, from the Civil War to the cusp of the civil rights movement. It is a story of fathers and sons and the spiritual and moral battles that still rage at America's heart. "It is a novel as big as a nation, as quiet as thought and moving as prayer. Matchless and towering," wrote Kirkus Reviews. Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for Gilead in 2005. The recording, comprised of five episodes which will be released on October 19 (streaming access is $25), features Hawke reading an abridgment of the novel. For him, it was a passion project, and a tribute to a favorite author: " Gilead has always been deeply moving to me. There's something about Robinson's writing-it's just who you want to be. You leave the book feeling grateful for being alive," said Hawke. "The world feels so rocky right now, it's kind of nice to have her peace-to touch it like a stone."Videos