HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

Prodigal Summer

by Barbara Kingsolver

Other authors: See the other authors section.

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
8,973196893 (3.98)368
Barbara Kingsolver's fifth novel is a hymn to wildness that celebrates the prodigal spirit of human nature, and of nature itself. It weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives amid the mountains and farms of southern Appalachia. Over the course of one humid summer, this novel's intriguing protagonists face disparate predicaments but find connections to one another and to the flora and fauna with which they necessarily share a place.… (more)
  1. 60
    The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (Booksloth, Anonymous user)
  2. 40
    State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (BillPilgrim)
    BillPilgrim: I heard the comparison/recommendation here: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/07/25/midmorning2/
  3. 00
    Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators by William Stolzenburg (Othemts)
  4. 00
    The Overstory by Richard Powers (JenMDB)
    JenMDB: trees
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 368 mentions

English (193)  French (1)  All languages (194)
Showing 1-5 of 193 (next | show all)
Victoria
  TNbookgroup | Mar 7, 2024 |
A great book about evolution. It follows the summer of three people-a 46 yr old female living alone as a National Forest employee who gets caught up with a 29 yr old; a 26 yr old woman whose spouse dies after a year of marriage and she must now run the family farm and a 80 yr old man trying to come up with a new variety of chestnut tree. It is about the effects of man to man and species to species in the world of survival.
  bentstoker | Jan 26, 2024 |
A gorgeous and haunting novel. Unforgettable. ( )
  BethOwl | Jan 24, 2024 |
Listening to this was like a visit home. The interwoven stories are quite enjoyable in their own right. But it is Kingsolver's unerring touch with the language -- the rhythms and the idioms of the southern Blue Ridge -- that lift this book above a mere character study. The ecological lessons woven into the stories and dialog are icing on the cake.
[Audiobook note: Kingsolver herself narrates the book. This, too, is a gift because an outsider can never quite get the southern Appalachian accent right.] ( )
  Treebeard_404 | Jan 23, 2024 |
I enjoyed the elements of naturalism that Kingsolver brought to the three stories. However, I was less interested in the characters she created. ( )
  maryelisa | Jan 16, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 193 (next | show all)
Readers hoping for the emotional intensity and wide-angle vision of ''The Poisonwood Bible,'' Kingsolver's magnificent 1998 epic about a self-destructing missionary family in the newly independent Congo, will most likely be disappointed. But the legions of fans primed on earlier books like ''Animal Dreams'' and ''The Bean Trees'' will find themselves back on familiar, well-cleared ground of plucky heroines, liberal politics and vivid descriptions of the natural world.
 
In an improbably appealing book with the feeling of a nice stay inside a terrarium, Ms. Kingsolver means to illustrate the nature of biological destiny and provide enlightened discourse on various ecological matters.
 

» Add other authors (11 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Kingsolver, Barbaraprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Belleteste, GuillemetteTraductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Buchbinder, ClaireTraductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Debritto, AbelTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Diago, MercèTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Frank-Strauss, Ruthsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Mulder, ArjenTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Post, MaaikeTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Strauss, Ruth Frank-secondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Prothalamium
Come, all you who are not satisfied
as ruler in a lone, wallpapered room
full of mute birds, and flowers that falsely bloom,
and closets choked with dreams that long ago died!
Come, let us sweep the old streets--like a bride:
sweep out dead leaves with a relentless broom;
prepare for Spring, as though he were our greem
for whose light footstep eagerly we bide.
We'll sweep out shadows, where the rats long fed;
sweep out our shame--and in its place we'll make
a bower for love, a splendid marriage-bed
fragrant with flowers aquiver for the Spring.
And when he comes, our murdered dreams shall wake;
and when he comes, all the mute birds shall sing.
--Aaron Kramer
Dedication
--for Steven, Camille, and Lily,
and for wildness, where it lives
First words
Her body moved with the frankness that comes from solitary habits.
Quotations
Arguments could fill a marriage like water, running through everything, always, with no taste or color but lots of noise.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (2)

Barbara Kingsolver's fifth novel is a hymn to wildness that celebrates the prodigal spirit of human nature, and of nature itself. It weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives amid the mountains and farms of southern Appalachia. Over the course of one humid summer, this novel's intriguing protagonists face disparate predicaments but find connections to one another and to the flora and fauna with which they necessarily share a place.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.98)
0.5 2
1 27
1.5 5
2 99
2.5 17
3 421
3.5 115
4 854
4.5 104
5 715

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

Recorded Books

An edition of this book was published by Recorded Books.

» Publisher information page

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 202,657,671 books! | Top bar: Always visible