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Prodigal Summer

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Prodigal Summer

By: Barbara Kingsolver
Narrated by: Barbara Kingsolver
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About this listen

 Prodigal Summer weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives in southern Appalachia. At the heart of these intertwined narratives is a den of coyotes that have recently migrated into the region. Deanna Wolfe, a reclusive wildlife biologist, watches them from an isolated mountain cabin where she is caught off-guard by Eddie Bondo, a young hunter who comes to invade her most private spaces and her solitary life.

Down the mountain, another web of lives unfolds as Lusa Maluf Landowski, a bookish city girl turned farmer's wife, finds herself 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 neighbors tend their respective farms and wrangle about God, pesticides, and the possibilities the future holds.

Over the course of one long summer, these characters find connections to one another, and to the land, and the final, urgent truth that humans are only one piece of life on earth.

©2000 Barbara Kingsolver (P)2000 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Political Small Town & Rural

Critic Reviews

"Readers will be seduced by [Kingsolver's] effortless prose." (Publishers Weekly)
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I love this book. I agree with BK, I really wanted Wile E. Coyote to get Road Runner. Thanks for beautiful writing!!

Coyote

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Beautifully descriptive as always with Barbara. Definitely a great read for the nature lover and those interested in ecology.

An Enjoyable Read

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This is a story that I keep going back to. Love the narration and characters.

One of my favourites

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From the first paragraph Barbara Kingsolver draws us into the mesmerising natural world of the Appalachian Mountains, and the finely observed relationships of various land holders.

Reading herself, Kingsolver nails the idiosyncratic turns of phrase, subtle humour and speech rhythms of hillbilly tobacco farmers and wildlife rangers.

I loved the birdsong recordings at the start of each chapter and all the meditations on the interconnected web of nature, the special place of apex predators and the harm indiscriminate pesticides wreak.

Anyone who loves to read about strong, smart women and who lives nature will be swept away.

Lyrical thoroughly engrossing

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I loved this and didn’t want it to end. I loved everything except perhaps the end. Although it was perfectly wrapped up I wasn’t ready to be finished with characters and would have loved just a little more. Great though, writing from the perspective of an animal.

A beautiful story, beautifully written and read

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Endearing characters that are captured beautifully in place and time. You'll feel right there with them in Zebulon County

A delight

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This has got to be my favourite book. Kingsolver is so thoughtful and considerate in the way that each sentence is constructed. A truly beautiful story of 3 individuals, connected in life and the landscape they inhabit.

My favourite book

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What a beautiful book, wonderfully and masterfully narrated by the author. Just loved every moment. Thank you!

Loved this!

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A great story that cleverly interweaves love and ecology and family. Hearing the dialogue read by the author, who slips effortlessly into a rural Appalachian accent, made it more real for me.
Five stars!

Take me to Tennessee

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I really enjoyed learning do much about nature in this book. It braided together a set of lovely stories and detailed descriptions of flora and flora. Well worth reading.

I Beautiful Blend of Fiction and Non-Fiction

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