From 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 confounds her self-assured, solitary life. On a farm several miles down the mountain, Lusa Maluf Landowski finds herself unexpectedly marooned in a strange place where she must declare or lose her attachment to the land that has become her own.A few more miles down the road, a pair of elderly, ...
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From 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 confounds her self-assured, solitary life. On a farm several miles down the mountain, Lusa Maluf Landowski finds herself unexpectedly marooned in a strange place where she must declare or lose her attachment to the land that has become her own.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 to one another and the flora and fauna with whom they share a place. Prodigal Summer embraces pure thematic originality and demonstrates a balance of narrative, drama and ideas that render it an inspiring work of fiction.
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Add this copy of Prodigal Summer to cart. $12.30, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2001 by Harper Perennial.
Add this copy of Prodigal Summer to cart. $22.33, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2000 by Harper.
The intricate web of an alive and evolving ecosystem is explored in depth from three different viewpoints in this engaging, amazing novel. Kingsolver takes an Appalachian mountain valley?a place of small farms and forests?and explores the myriad dramas, both micro and macro, that take place in one ?prodigal summer.? From humans and coyotes, moths and phoebes, wild honeysuckle and Chestnut trees, the theme here is life in all its messy, amazing, procreating, preying, mutating, and adapting glory.
Kingsolver?s intricate knowledge of the natural world and rich descriptions are unsurpassed and bring to mind naturalist author Peter Mathiessen. Ms. Kingsolver, however, has just as good a touch with the people in her story. Her characters are sympathetic, deep and flawed. They are mere humans living in a small valley, trapped in a web, where everything is interconnected. It?s a place ?where every quiet step is thunder to beetle life underfoot, a tug of impalpable thread on the web pulling mate to mate and predator to prey, a beginning or an end.?
Though at times she flirts with preachiness, overall Ms. Kingsolver strikes a perfect balance of biological detail, natural dramas and human relationships. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the natural world.
teilhard7
Sep 23, 2007
Simply brillant!
Once in a decade or so, you get to read an unforgettable novel that is both intelligent and heart-rending. The Poisonwood Bible is such a novel. The writer, Ms. Kingsolver, has the insight of a mystic, but writes in a language that touches your heart as well as satisfies your intellect. This is a first rate novel about life, its foibles and aspirations; about the missteps and the courage to be human - all written in beautiful and credible prose. This is an exemplary novel. Simply beautiful and brillant.