Lila by Marilynne Robinson (FIC Rob)

Sometimes old men do foolish things, says the Rev. John Ames.  And according to his small congregation, he has.  

At 67, long-time widower Rev. Ames has reconciled himself to loneliness. Then one Sunday morning a young woman escapes the rain by stepping inside his small church. It's Lila, a woman with an old knife and a hidden past.

Their ensuing marriage seems as strange as it is unexpected to the people of Gilead, Iowa.  Perhaps the one most surprised of all is Rev. Ames.

Lila has barely survived the Great Depression. Her make-shift family is dead or gone, and Lila is alone when she stumbles into Gilead.  She plans to rest awhile then move on. Then a rainstorm hits, and she stops for a minute in a church.

Marilynne Robinson is my favorite Iowa author and I loved her Pulitzer Prize winning (and 2006 All Iowa Reads selection) novel Gilead and then Home.  These three books are interconnected, but you can read Lila as a stand-alone.

I can't resist a story with two misfits who find unexpected happiness together, and I love these complicated, yet ordinary characters. Add Robinson's precise writing and careful storytelling, and this book easily makes my personal "Best Books of 2014" list.