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 all 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.

This tale of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction, over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa, is set against history's most dramatic political parables.

The Poisonwood Bible dances between the darkly comic human failings and inspiring poetic justices of our times. In a compelling exploration of religion, conscience, imperialist arrogance, and the many paths to redemption, Barbara Kingsolver has brought forth her most ambitious work ever.

This dense and intricate family chronicle follows a Baptist missionary family into the Congo, circa 1959, where their faith in Jesus, democracy, and what we call civilization is severely challenged. The five female narrators range from a teenaged Malaprop pining for soda pop and the bunny hop to a child prodigy who comprehends words, phrases and whole books backwards and forwards. We hear African dialects, and smatterings of French and Afrikaans. What a challenge for a narrator! Dean Robertson does not do a lot of "acting" in this performance. She doesn't strain to distinguish voices or milk the emotions. So you begin to imagine you're listening to the author herself, presenting the text simply, in a matter-of-fact, slightly rural Southern voice. S.P. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

 

Barbara Kingsolver is the bestselling author of the novels, The Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven, as well as collected essays, High Tide in Tucson. The Poisonwood Bible was an Oprah Book Club pick. She lives in Arizona.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
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