SOURCE: Coulter, Moureen. “After the Fall.” Belles Lettres 10, no. 1 (fall 1994): 25, 27.

In the following review, Coulter summarizes the central themes of A Map of the World, noting that Hamilton's examination of the power of forgiveness is “remarkable.”

What does it mean to fall from grace, and where do the fallen go? Are they forever banished from their former blessedness, or can they hope to regain its heights? These theological questions have structured many a catechism over the years, but even children who learn the answers “by heart” can later have trouble applying them to the unforeseen messiness of their adult lives. Alice Goodwin, the protagonist of Jane Hamilton's remarkable new novel, A Map of the World, confesses to just such bewilderment at the beginning of her narrative:

I used to think if you fell from grace it was more likely than not the result of one stupendous error, or...