Marilynne Robinson and Barack Obama in conversation

Robinson has plumbed the depths of the human spirit in her trilogy of novels – Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead, Orange-Prize winning Home and National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Lila – and in her moving essay collection When I Was a Child I Read Books.

Now, in The Givenness of Things, she brings a profound sense of awe and an incisive mind to the essential questions of contemporary life and faith. Through fourteen essays of remarkable depth and insight, Robinson explores the dilemmas of our modern predicament.

And what a predicament that is. In the paperback edition, just published, there is an exclusive transcript of a wonderful, insightful interview between Barack Obama and Marilynne Robinson; we hope you read and enjoy some of their words of wisdom below.

Finally, for a great video of President Obama singing the praises of one of his favourite novelists (Robinson, of course) – head here.