The Poisonwood Bible

Barbara Kingsolver

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Awards

Shortlisted for Orange Prize for Fiction 1999.

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Description

"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 family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.

Comments & Discussion

mmbraman rated this book

I just couldnt get into the style so im not really sure how well it was written cause i couldnt make myself read anymore so i passed the book on

23 days ago...

tmechols

REALLY disappointed in this book right now. I was looking so forward to reading it but I am literally having to force myself to pick it back up to make progress. Would not recommend this book.

2 users like this

makaylagymnast101 commented:

I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL!!! i tried reading the 1st percy jackson book a while ago and i heard so much good things about it and i justcouldnt read it!! i was just not interested at all haha lol

1 year ago...

winterpants commented:

I'm pro-Poisonwood, and the Congo is a particularly fascinating country to read about . The politics of the novel (i.e. about independence from colonial rule) are not overbearing and well integrated for most of the book, but then after they leave the jungle and head for the concrete jungle, it gets a bit preachy. The end feels tacked on and the plot of the novel could have sufficed without it. Very engaging, otherwise.

3 months ago...

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Velvet27 rated this book

I just adore the way Kingsolver uses words and creates descriptions in this book, it creates such a rich tapestry in the creation of the characters and the environment. Absolutely beautifully written, and such an interesting setting in revolutionary Congo with a missionary family displaced into a small Congo village. Wonderful book.

1 year ago...

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