Prodigal summer: Barbara Kingsolver
For over 30 years now my heart and mind have been widened by Kingsolver’s deeply insightful novels that are grounded in the natural world. Prodigal Summer is a novel that intertwines three narratives set in Appalachia, exploring the connections between humans and nature. The story follows a wildlife biologist protecting coyotes, a recently widowed woman managing a farm, and an elderly man debating modern agriculture, all grappling with love, survival, and ecological interdependence. Through lush prose and ecological themes, the novel celebrates the resilience of life, the power of relationships, and the beauty of the natural world. ~ Manchán Magan
It is summer in the Appalachian mountains and love, desire and attraction are in the air. Nature, too, it seems, is not immune. 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 interrupts 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 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 of love to one another and to the surrounding nature with which they share a place. With its strong balance of narrative and drama, Prodigal Summer is stands alongside Demon Copperhead, The Poisonwood Bible and The Lacuna as one of Barbara Kingsolver's finest works.
For over 30 years now my heart and mind have been widened by Kingsolver’s deeply insightful novels that are grounded in the natural world. Prodigal Summer is a novel that intertwines three narratives set in Appalachia, exploring the connections between humans and nature. The story follows a wildlife biologist protecting coyotes, a recently widowed woman managing a farm, and an elderly man debating modern agriculture, all grappling with love, survival, and ecological interdependence. Through lush prose and ecological themes, the novel celebrates the resilience of life, the power of relationships, and the beauty of the natural world. ~ Manchán Magan
It is summer in the Appalachian mountains and love, desire and attraction are in the air. Nature, too, it seems, is not immune. 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 interrupts 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 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 of love to one another and to the surrounding nature with which they share a place. With its strong balance of narrative and drama, Prodigal Summer is stands alongside Demon Copperhead, The Poisonwood Bible and The Lacuna as one of Barbara Kingsolver's finest works.
For over 30 years now my heart and mind have been widened by Kingsolver’s deeply insightful novels that are grounded in the natural world. Prodigal Summer is a novel that intertwines three narratives set in Appalachia, exploring the connections between humans and nature. The story follows a wildlife biologist protecting coyotes, a recently widowed woman managing a farm, and an elderly man debating modern agriculture, all grappling with love, survival, and ecological interdependence. Through lush prose and ecological themes, the novel celebrates the resilience of life, the power of relationships, and the beauty of the natural world. ~ Manchán Magan
It is summer in the Appalachian mountains and love, desire and attraction are in the air. Nature, too, it seems, is not immune. 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 interrupts 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 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 of love to one another and to the surrounding nature with which they share a place. With its strong balance of narrative and drama, Prodigal Summer is stands alongside Demon Copperhead, The Poisonwood Bible and The Lacuna as one of Barbara Kingsolver's finest works.