The Eighth Day
Thornton Wilder, 1967
★ 3.97 from 1.9k ratings on Goodreads
A murder charge in a small Illinois town becomes Wilder's long argument with providence: how much of a life is chosen, how much is handed to us, and what the worst of it is for. A small-town murder charge opens into a slow, lyrical family chronicle, with a grave, philosophical voice and a steady undercurrent of unease.
Feels like awe, unease and wonder. About society, family and faith.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy family sagas that treat fate and providence as serious questions rather than background. Be warned that the pacing is slow and long expository stretches can frustrate readers who come expecting a tight mystery.
Why read it
It gives you Wilder's wide view of a family's life and the moral questions a crime stirs up, told with patience and lyrical weight.
A page from the book
What kind of love would refuse to spare you anything.
When God loves a creature he wants the creature to know the highest happiness and the deepest misery … He wants him to know all that being alive can bring. That is his best gift…. There is no happiness save in understanding the whole. What readers say
Readers are divided: many admire the sweeping family story and its philosophical reflections on fate and providence, while others find the pacing slow and the long expository passages frustrating. Some call it moving and thought-provoking; others expected a tighter mystery.
Thornton Wilder.Wilder won three Pulitzer Prizes — for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and the plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth.
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Questions readers ask
- Is The Eighth Day for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy family sagas that treat fate and providence as serious questions rather than background. Be warned that the pacing is slow and long expository stretches can frustrate readers who come expecting a tight mystery.
- What is The Eighth Day like?
- A small-town murder charge opens into a slow, lyrical family chronicle, with a grave, philosophical voice and a steady undercurrent of unease. Feels like awe, unease and wonder. About society, family and faith.
- What should I read after The Eighth Day?
- If you liked The Eighth Day, try Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy), Chesapeake (James Michener) and East of Eden (John Steinbeck).
A taste of the feed
The strange calm that arrives when a lie comes out perfectly.
Anna said what came to her lips, and marveled, hearing herself, at her own capacity for lying. How simple and natural were her words, and how likely that she was simply sleepy! She felt herself clad in an impenetrable armor of falsehood. She felt that some unseen force had come to her aid and was supporting her.
Anna Karenina · Leo Tolstoy
What it costs to leave before they name your punishment.
It took him only a few moments to reach that decision. The council would not act hastily; it never did. There would have to be long speeches, condemning him, but if this child’s father had actually used the word punish, a much more serious penalty than outlawing might be in store. His enemies had grown so outspoken that some might even demand death; if they convinced themselves that he was indeed a spy for the northern tribes, this would be logical.
Chesapeake · James Michener
Grief has a weight that only shows itself when you stop moving.
As long as I kept moving, my grief streamed out behind me like a swimmer’s long hair in water. I knew the weight was there but it didn’t touch me. Only when I stopped did the slick, dark stuff of it come floating around my face, catching my arms and throat till I began to drown. So I just didn’t stop.
The Poisonwood Bible · Barbara Kingsolver
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