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Prodigal Summer cover art

Prodigal Summer

By: Barbara Kingsolver
Narrated by: Barbara Kingsolver
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Summary

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.

Critic reviews

"Readers will be seduced by [Kingsolver's] effortless prose." ( Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about Prodigal Summer

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Another perfect book

<3 came here straight after listening to Demon Copperhead

Cant get enough of Babs!! Amazing writer and perfect narrator!

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Wonderful

A beautiful story that's connects both emotionally and with the world around us. Wonderfully written and narrated.

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Another winner from this author

All her books are so different but take you from here to there, wherever the book is going. Beautifully read by the author, well researched, a lovely gentle read with an ending which asks for a sequel.

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So informative and lovely story telling

Gently and well read, I learnt so much about the details we live amongst. It’s a long book and good company.

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Loved everything about this book

I loved the narrators voice, so subtle but really engaging. Obviously being a book written by Barbara Kingsolver, the story was going to be amazing yet modest. I thoroughly enjoyed this book

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A book for life

This was a scrumptious romp through the Appalachia mountains and surrounding farms. Can’t put into words the joy I felt at the detail of nature and the obvious connections I’d somehow taken for granted. Another of Kingsolver’s books that will stay with me forever!

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Blissful

Wanted to go back to the beginning and listen again. I will definitely do that again soon.

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Enjoyable, sensitive, wise

Topical, funny, touching, informative. I liked the sensitive treatment of family dynamics, of bereavement and of gender, and the main theme: the place of humans in the natural world : how interconnected all life forms are - including us human animals; and what a joyful fact that is.

Though there is a strong ecological message Kingsolver depicts those who damage the web of life, such as hunters and the users of pesticides, with understanding rather than demonising them, hoping to persuade and educate rather than condemn.

My only reservation about the book is the three story structure. We jumped about too much for my taste! I’d hoped unrealistically for some sort of denouement but the three stories only came together through their overlapping themes and their shared geography. As a result I didn’t find the conclusion satisfying - really each story ended separately in spite of the discovery of hidden connections between the main characters.

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Wonderful

I loved everything about this amazing book , her perception of life and ability to express it astonished me and will stay with me always.

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  • pc
  • 08-05-23

Three Stories

Loved these three stories and how they connect.
Another beautiful tale of wild nature and
Human relationships.

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