The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it—from garden seeds to Scripture—is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one … epic of one family’s tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.
The novel is set against one of the most dramatic political chronicles of the twentieth century: the Congo’s fight for independence from Belgium, the murder of its first elected prime minister, the CIA coup to install his replacement, and the insidious progress of a world economic order that robs the fledgling African nation of its autonomy. Against this backdrop, Orleanna Price reconstructs the story of her evangelist husband’s part in the Western assault on Africa, a tale indelibly darkened by her own losses and unanswerable questions about her own culpability. Also narrating the story, by turns, are her four daughters—the self-centered, teenaged Rachel; shrewd adolescent twins Leah and Adah; and Ruth May, a prescient five-year-old. These sharply observant girls, who arrive in the Congo with racial preconceptions forged in 1950s Georgia, will be marked in surprisingly different ways by their father’s intractable mission, and by Africa itself. Ultimately each must strike her own separate path to salvation. Their passionately intertwined stories become a compelling exploration of moral risk and personal responsibility.
Dancing between the dark comedy of human failings and the breathtaking possibilities of human hope, The Poisonwood Bible possesses all that has distinguished Barbara Kingsolver’s previous work, and extends this beloved writer’s vision to an entirely new level. Taking its place alongside the classic works of postcolonial literature, this ambitious novel establishes Kingsolver as one of the most thoughtful and daring of modern writers.
more
Interesting writing style and conversation. Interesting about culture and life of people and about the politics. Shows how people are able to adapt and live through bad situations
One of my all-time favorites and an amazing example of what a talented writer can do with multiple perspectives. These sisters are still with me years later. Couldn’t recommend more highly.
This rates as one of the best books I’ve ever read. I think it should be required reading if you’re alive. The events in the book were so riveting, but what I most loved and appreciated was the storytelling. The story was told from the point of view of 4 different sisters, and each one had such a distinct voice and viewpoint. Just an amazing …
This is an extraordinary book in terms of depth and scope. A true saga, a historical exploration, and almost a thesis on the effects of environment on social understanding and dynamic change. Kingsolver makes this her undoubted masterpiece. Not necessarily an easy read, but the characters and sense of place leave you with an absolute feeling of …
The way Kingsolver wrote in so many believable characters brought me back to my love for writing and encouraged me to take up my pen again. I loved this book. It was so different from anything else I had ever read before. It will always occupy a special place in my heart.
Possessed perhaps of the most lusciously eloquent first hundred pages in American Lit – this book is a soul-scarring immersion into the after-birth of Colonialism in Belgian Africa through the live’s of a missionary pulpiteer and his precocious family.
Kingsolver masterfully entwines the life of the family into the rustic Congo village life …
This is not a murder mystery (my usual fare) but a family saga of a mother and four daughters who spend a year in the Congo circa 1960. Each character’s voice is utterly distinct and each has their own perspective on the heartbreak and hope that existed there.
I absolutely love this book!! I have read it three or four times, and likely will read it again. I love that the author writes each chapter in the voice of one of the characters. The sisters and their mother; speaking of their challenges of life as Missionaries in Africa. There were times I was filled with rage for the patriarch who ignores or …
It has been years since I read this book, but I remember so much about it. The characters all have a very distinct voice, as this family travels to Africa and tries to “help” the natives survive with methods which do not work. Kingsolver is a master of depicting human foibles and using them to show us a world and consequences we have never …
I read this many years ago and it is one of my all-time favorite books. Each chapter tells the story from the point of view of a different character. The father/minister takes his family to Africa to be missionaries and is a “know it all” and refuses to attend the orientation for new missionaries to that part of the world. The result is misery. He …
Barbara Kingsolver is a favorite, and this is my all-time favorite for her. It was the first audio book I ever listened to, and I couldn’t wait to get to my car!
One I would hope everyone would read.
Over the years, I always come back to this book for its representation of a family – and all the things you think you know when actually you have no idea. This is perfect for a summer day or a cozy winter night or everything in between!
Easily in my top five books of all time.
One of the best and most complex books I have read. The voices of the individual characters are so distinct and the narrative will leave you with Africa imprinted on your soul.
I felt as if I was in Africa and I learned what poor is. It opened my eyes to that part of the world and what it is like to have “nothing” and no country to provide for you. The father in this book is horrible, while being a minister, caring more about spreading the word of God to unbelieving people than his own wife and daughters. I learned so …
Simply one of the best novels ever written. Always loved Kingsolver but the way she wrote in each characters differing voice throughout the novel was genius.
A devastating tale of family and faith set in postcolonial Congo. Kingsolver’s novel is told through the eyes of the wife and daughters of a missionary as they experience tragedy and transformation over the years following their arrival in Africa. Each character is impacted by what happens in the Congo in different ways and we see how the young …
Missionaries in Africa, told from different points of view.
The Poison Poisonwood Bible