The Poisonwood Bible

The Poisonwood Bible

1998 • 576 pages

Ratings196

Average rating4

15

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.This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

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Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

This is a long book, but I liked the multiple endings. It did not have a ‘tie-it-up-with-a-bow' typical fiction ending, but continued for another 100 pages or so. Barbara Kingsolver really outdid herself with this one.

December 9, 2008
September 17, 2020

The writing made the characters so real to me that I just wanted to shout at them and shake them into seeing what the hell was really going on. This book made me furious, and I highly recommend it to all.

October 1, 2005

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