'Through the eyes of another'

 “Good fiction creates empathy. A novel takesyou somewhere and asks you to look through the eyes of another person, to liveanother life.” – Barbara Kingsolver

 Since 1993, the year of her firstnovel The Poisonwood Bible, every one of BarbaraKingsolver's 16 books have reached The New York Times Best Seller list. Born in Appalachia on this date in 1955, Kingsolver intended to be aclassical musician and, in fact, had a college scholarship to become one.  But, she said she realized that “only about 6people a year get hired in that world.”  Soshe switched her focus to the study of science and on a whim tried her hand at “creative” writing. 

Kingsolverhas split her adult life between homes in Appalachia andArizona, where she wrote some of her most memorable works including Pigs in Heaven earning a reputation as a writer focusing on socialjustice, biodiversity and the interaction between humans, their communities andtheir environments.   [image error]BarbaraKingsolver “Every time I write a new novelabout something somber and sobering and terrible I think (of my readers) ‘OhLord, they’re not going to want to go here.’ But they do.  Readers of fiction read, I think, for adeeper embrace of the world, of reality. And that’s brave."