Sunday 9 January 2011

Kingsolver, Barbara "Prodigal Summer"


Kingsolver, Barbara "Prodigal Summer" - 2001

"Three interwoven love stories set in the Appalachian farmlands, US. The first - involving a reclusive wildlife ranger and a young hunter, the second, a young widow taking over her husbands farm, and the third - between two old cantankerous farmers, one a traditional farmer and the other organic. As always with Kingsolver, nature and the environment rule!"

So far, I liked all the Barbara Kingsolver's books I've read. I like her style, the way her characters come alive. This one involves a lot of family history, the different people in the book all seem to have some links to each other, but there is also quite a bit about nature protection which I liked a lot but some other book club members have found a little "too much".

Anyway, if you are a fan of Barbara Kingsolver and similar writers, you will like this one, as well. A book that gives you a nice feeling.

I have also read other books by Barbara Kingsolver, you can find my reviews here.

We discussed this in our book club in January 2003.

Book Description:

"Prodigal Summer weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives inhabiting the forested mountains and struggling small farms of southern Appalachia.
From her outpost in an isolated mountain cabin, Deanna Wolfe, a reclusive wildlife biologist, watches a den of coyotes that have recently migrated into the region. She is caught off guard by a young hunter who invades her most private spaces and confounds her self-assured, solitary life. On a farm several miles down the mountain, Lusa Maluf Landowski, a bookish city girl turned farmer's wife, finds herself unexpectedly marooned in a strange place where she must declare or lose her attachment to the land that has become her own. And a few more miles down the road, a pair of elderly feuding neighbours tend their respective farms and wrangle about God, pesticides, and the possibilities of a future neither of them expected.

Over the course of one humid summer, these characters find their connections to one another and to the flora and fauna with whom they share a place.
Prodigal Summer demonstrates a balance of narrative, drama and ideas that is characteristic of Barbara Kingsolver's finest work."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2022.

2 comments:

  1. Oh yes, I enjoyed this and all books by Kingsolver! I discovered her through The Poisonwood Bible

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    1. So did I, Emma, it was my first and probably still my favourite of her books.

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