Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “The Poisonwood Bible” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

The Poisonwood Bible

Barbara Kingsolver

4.05 · Rating details · 616,787 ratings · 21,954 reviews

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 sus 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.

The novel is set against one of the most dramatic political chronicles of the twentieth century: the Congo's fight for independence from Belgium, the murder of its first elected prime minister, the CIA coup to install his replacement, and the insidious progress of a world economic order that robs the fledgling African nation of its autonomy. Against this backdrop, Orleanna Price reconstructs the story of her evangelist husband's part in the Western assault on Africa, a tale indelibly darkened by her own losses and unanswerable questions about her own culpability. Also narrating the story, by turns, are her four daughters—the self-centered, teenaged Rachel; shrewd adolescent twins Leah and Adah; and Ruth May, a prescient five-year-old. These sharply observant girls, who arrive in the Congo with racial preconceptions forged in 1950s Georgia, will be marked in surprisingly different ways by their father's intractable mission, and by Africa itself. Ultimately each must strike her own separate path to salvation. Their passionately intertwined stories become a compelling exploration of moral risk and personal responsibility.

Dancing between the dark comedy of human failings and the breathtaking possibilities of human hope, The Poisonwood Bible possesses all that has distinguished Barbara Kingsolver's previous work, and extends this beloved writer's vision to an entirely new level. Taking its place alongside the classic works of postcolonial literature, this ambitious novel establishes Kingsolver as one of the most thoughtful and daring of modern writers. ...more

Get A Copy

Or buy for

Hardcover, First edition, 546 pages

Published September 24th 1998 by HarperFlamingo

More Details... edit details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about The Poisonwood Bible, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Favorite World Fiction & Literature

316 books — 276 voters

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Books on Books: metacovers

360 books — 84 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

4.05 ·

Rating details

· 616,787 ratings · 21,954 reviews

More filters

Sort order

May 19, 2008 Ebookwormy1 rated it did not like it

Shelves: culture, 2-caution, world-africa

On one hand, there is nothing new here, and on this same old tirade, I disagree strongly with the author. Examples:

* Relativism. I'm sorry, I believe infanticide to be wrong for all cultures, for all times.

* Missionaries, particularly protestant missionaries to Africa were entirely the endeavor of egotistic, abusive, colonialists who were merely out to change Africa into either a western society or an exploitative factory for western society. Wrong again, read Tom Hiney's "On the Missionary Trai ...more

flag 387 likes · Like · see review

May 06, 2012 Emily May rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, historical-fiction

There's plenty of Goodreads reviewers who felt differently, but I found The Poisonwood Bible to be a very strong and very different piece of historical fiction. It's a slower story than I normally like, something you might want to consider before deciding whether to try this 600+ page exploration of colonialism, postcolonialism and postcolonial attitudes, but I very much enjoyed this incredibly detailed portrait of a family and a society set in the Belgian Congo of 1959. And I, unlike some other There's plenty of Goodreads reviewers who felt differently, but I found The Poisonwood Bible to be a very strong and very different piece of historical fiction. It's a slower story than I normally like, something you might want to consider before deciding whether to try this 600+ page exploration of colonialism, postcolonialism and postcolonial attitudes, but I very much enjoyed this incredibly detailed portrait of a family and a society set in the Belgian Congo of 1959. And I, unlike some other readers, didn't see evidence of a narrow-minded agenda in Kingsolver's tale. I didn't really see this as a book about lessons or morals, I saw it as a close look at the reality of this time and the different way it can be perceived depending on your point of view.

I like writers who explore without trying to impart a lesson, who lay out a canvas but let the reader draw their own conclusions from it. This adds depth and a layer of complexity to the novel that allows for that dreaded word - interpretation - to rear its head. But different interpretations make for very interesting conversations. And I love it when reading a book creates a two-way stream of ideas, those of the author and those of the reader, the kind of book that asks me to think instead of proceeding to think for me. Lectures on colonialism? Been there, done that, give me this more thought-provoking method any day.

I particularly like what Tatiana said about the different POVs of the Price family and how each showed a different side and a different attitude to colonialism. From those who saw it as the West's duty to educate and industrialize "savages" and rid them of such damaging practices as genital mutilation and infanticide; to those who feel embarrassed at what the West has done to the postcolonial world and believe in the need for cultural respect. It's complex because there isn't a simple answer to the questions raised by colonialism. Do objective, absolute truths ever exist? Where does culture end and universal human rights begin? Is humanitarian intervention a responsibility or an excuse to impose Western beliefs and values on postcolonial societies? Kingsolver shows the many sides to this issue and lets you draw your own conclusions.

The story is about Nathan Price and his family. Nathan is an evangelical Baptist from Georgia who believes God has sent him on a mission to save - through religious conversion - the "savage" citizens of the Belgian Congo. With him are his wife and four daughters and the novel alternates between each of these five perspectives. I'm not usually a fan of any more than two POVs but this book turned out to be a rare exception. Maybe because Kingsolver spent the necessary time developing each individual character so none of the perspectives felt unnecessary or like filler.

I've spent a lot of time comparing this book to another I read recently - A Thousand Splendid Suns. They are both books about countries and cultures that I was only vaguely familiar with and they are both about a very specific turning point in each country's history. And while they are both good, in my opinion, they are also two very different kinds of novels. A Thousand Splendid Suns is a fast-paced, emotional, dramatic page-turner that has you constantly on the edge of your seat. I read it in a single day and wanted to recommend it to every person who hadn't read it. The Poisonwood Bible, on the other hand, is a slower, more complex, more demanding work that is even more satisfying when you look back over it and observe its clever details as a whole. It's not for everyone and I'm sure my Empire and Decolonization course helped prepare me somewhat for it.

Ultimately, I really liked how Kingsolver uses the different perspectives to take on the different attitudes to postcolonialism. For me, this is a clever and thought-provoking novel that goes beyond what many other books of its kind have achieved. ...more

flag 271 likes · Like · see review

Aug 03, 2016 Brina rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: barbara-kingsolver, pulitzer-winner

I read this over a two day span in college when I was home for winter break. We had a power outage so I found the sunniest room in the house and read all day. Although I prefer Kingsolver's works about the American southwest, this remains one of the most fascinating books I have ever read.

flag 256 likes · Like · see review

Jul 16, 2016 Cecily rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: africa, landscape-protagonist, canada-and-usa, god-religion-faith, historical-fict-20th-cent

“The forest eats itself and lives forever.”
Image: “The Trees Have Eyes” by Angela Wright

There is magic in these pages. Not the supernatural kind. Not the magical-realism kind. But magic of language and of the TARDIS kind: by some strange sorcery, many huge themes are thoroughly but lightly explored in single volume that is beautiful, harrowing, exciting, tender, occasionally humorous, and very approachable.

“We messengers of goodwill adrift in a sea of mistaken intentions.”

Freedom and Forgivenes ...more

flag 236 likes · Like · see review

Jun 24, 2008 Heidi rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: library-book

I had a hard time choosing between 2 and 3 stars -- really, it should be 2.5. I thought the prose was quite lovely; Kingsolver has a nice voice. I enjoyed reading about a part of the world of which I have no experience. The description of the clash of cultures was well done.

However. The author had an agenda and she really didn't mind continually slapping us in the face with it. Now, I don't pretend the US hasn't made mistakes and won't continue on making mistakes. But to equate one group of peo ...more

flag 146 likes · Like · see review

Feb 03, 2018 Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audios, 2018-reads, traveling-sister-reads

5 epic, no wonder this book is so well-loved stars, to The Poisonwood Bible! ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Review of the audio. 🎧

The Price family, including minister father, Nathan, mother, Orleanna, and four daughters, traveled to the Belgian Congo in the late 1950s to serve a Baptist mission. The mom and daughters are the narrators, and I enjoyed the audio narrator’s voices for each of the characters (even her southern accent wasn’t too off the mark!). I do have to warn for audio fans, there were so many charact ...more

flag 136 likes · Like · see review

Dec 29, 2007 Paul Bryant rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

Reviewing in the face of the great billows of love projected towards this novel is a hapless task, your hat blows off and your eyes get all teary and if you say one wrong thing small children run out of nowhere and stone you or just bite your calves. So I shall this one time sheathe my acid quill. But I can't resist just a couple of little points though -

1) you have to suspend great balefuls of disbelief. These kids, they're awfully highfalutin with their fancy flora and fauna and fitful forensi ...more

flag 130 likes · Like · see review

Mar 07, 2008 Alisa Muelleck rated it did not like it · review of another edition

People love this book, and I think I understand why. It's got a collection of strong characters, each chapter is written from a different character's point of view, and it's set in Africa, which is exciting. But there are a few reasons I don't think it's great literature.

The main things I expect from a good novel are: a) that the writer doesn't manipulate her characters for her agenda, b) that the characters' actions are consistent to the world the writer has created for them, c) good, tight pr ...more

flag 124 likes · Like · see review

Sep 20, 2012 Lyn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

What is amazing about The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is the author’s voice.

Kingsolver casts a spell with the language she uses to describe three decades in the collective lives of the Price family, beginning with their time as missionaries in the Belgian Congo.

The structure is also a strength. The story is narrated by the mother and daughters of the Price family, each illustrating her perspective of the family chronicle as they experience what would become and what really began as What is amazing about The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is the author’s voice.

Kingsolver casts a spell with the language she uses to describe three decades in the collective lives of the Price family, beginning with their time as missionaries in the Belgian Congo.

The structure is also a strength. The story is narrated by the mother and daughters of the Price family, each illustrating her perspective of the family chronicle as they experience what would become and what really began as an ill-fated mission. The ending family is a mirror image of the beginning, Leah Price and her four sons serving as the anti-missionary to Nathan Price’s strict and misguided zealotry.

Kingsolver’s imagery is reminiscent of Faulkner’s families, and it may be a silent nod to the Nobel Prize winner to have Orleana Price come from Mississippi. The reader cannot help but be reminded of William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury and especially As I Lay Dying, redolent by the altering perspectives of the characters narrative. Kingsolver also masterfully explores many Faulkneresque themes such as family, legacy, racism, guilt, and connections to land.

The author also depicts and expounds upon themes of motherhood, parent child relationships, feminism, colonial arrogance and forgiveness. Running in a current throughout the novel is religion and how Christianity blends and conflicts with animist theology. The Poisonwood Bible also records the history of colonial Congo as it transitions briefly to independence and then to a subjugation of another kind, while also spending some time with the economics of the Rumble in the Jungle between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.

What I cannot like about the book, and what becomes a fundamental, and distractingly unnecessary flaw is the lack of objective balance. Kingsolver is clearly critical of the Christian mission and Western capitalism, and her argument is persuasive. There is no doubt that Western influences, from colonial Belgium to CIA interference to capitalistic excesses have caused devastating problems in the region. What is maddening about the narrative is Kingsolver’s use of straw man arguments, when she does not need to! She has made her point and well, so refusing to even acknowledge a counter argument weakens her otherwise powerful reasoning.

The characters Nathan and Rachel Price are unnecessarily one-dimensional. She provides an intriguing back-story to explain some of Nathan’s neurosis but uses him simply as a foil to Leah’s development and as an inverse example of her pragmatic spirituality. Rachel’s character is really a caricature, almost a comic relief, and this glaring juxtaposition to Ada’s allegorical maturity further diminishes Kingsolver’s otherwise impressive artistic achievement.

Still, these flaws are far from fatal and Barbara Kingsolver has created a memorable work.

** 2018 addendum - it is a testament to great literature that a reader recalls the work years later and this is a book about which I frequently think. Excellent.

description

...more

flag 120 likes · Like · see review

Jan 11, 2008 Mimi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Ashley

Shelves: cried-my-eyes-out

My official review "Tata Jesus is Bängala":

I finished the last 300 pages in 2 days (which is very fast for me - English books). I felt every emotion under the sky with this book. I hated Nathan Price, I hated injustice, I hated my uselessness, I hated the fact that there are no good prospects for Africa in the future. As a Geographic major I strongly believe that the closer you are to the Equator, the longer it will remain an underdeveloped country. Of course the country itself is full of resour My official review "Tata Jesus is Bängala":

I finished the last 300 pages in 2 days (which is very fast for me - English books). I felt every emotion under the sky with this book. I hated Nathan Price, I hated injustice, I hated my uselessness, I hated the fact that there are no good prospects for Africa in the future. As a Geographic major I strongly believe that the closer you are to the Equator, the longer it will remain an underdeveloped country. Of course the country itself is full of resources (in non-foods) that could make them rich, but nothing can feed the overpopulated cities. Politics obstruct any way of turning diamonds into food. Anyway,
I loved the fact the author talked so much about how they processed their lives and experiences in the Congo. To some degree that's how I am. I grew up poor and desolate and now live in this insane country where everything is available. I feel restless and unsettles at times. Like Orleanna who can't wear shoes in Atlanta because she needs to feel dirt between her feet I prefer to walk to church (with stroller and kids) in Minus degree weather because that's my connection to my family and culture in Germany. Nobody gets it when we arrive at church with red noses, fully aware that we have a functional car.
I love and miss Ruth May. I cried a lot about dead animal. I laughed at her timely wittiness in describing the culture clashes.

I learned one important point about African culture. The author lingered on the fact that Africans (especially villagers) can't grasp the fact of a family owning or keeping more than they need or consume at any point. When a fisherman caught a full net he immediately shares with his village. People don't ask for fish or thank for the fish. They just take. Because that's how it is. When the Prices arrived there with storage the kids came to beg at their door. Not because they were greedy or rude but that's how the village functions.

We have many African immigrants in our ward and neighborhood (sometimes I am the only white person in a store on any given day). For example when the Relief Society announces a committee meeting "With refreshments" some African women just show up. They go straight to the refreshment table (in the middle of the meeting, untouched foods and all) eat, and then go home. None has a calling but hears the call to eat the offered food. There is an abundance and they have no money for food. It's all logical to them to eat when it's available if they were invited or not. There are also many problems with African can't getting off welfare. Honorable families don't understand the reason not to take when it's for everyone to take and use. There is no thinking about the future, just filling the belly now.

One of our Book Club books this year is "A Framework for Understanding Poverty" by Ruby K Payne to help us interact better.

I loved it. It was a good book. A few flaws but easily forgivable for the beautiful philosophical writing. It was the best epic I read so far. ...more

flag 119 likes · Like · see review

May 02, 2009 Will Byrnes rated it really liked it · review of another edition

In late 1950s Congo, an American missionary arrives with his family intent on bringing enlightenment to the savages. The experiences of the family are told by the preacher’s wife, Orleanna, and their four daughters, the vain Rachel, twins Leah, who is devoted to her father, and Adah, damaged at birth but more aware than anyone realizes, and the baby, Ruth Ann. The events take place during a period when Congo was eager to cast off its colonial chains and we see some details of events of the time. ...more

flag 111 likes · Like · see review

Apr 02, 2007 Angela Dawn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Riveting...We read this aloud at home and I found it to be beautifully and movingly written, by turns charming and horrifying. Her articulation of the most subtle nuances of experience, the profoundly different narrative voices she assumes like an experienced character actress, and the way she fluently plays with language, show Kingsolver's love and mastery of her craft.
Having been brought up by ultra-religious Christian parents myself, I found the children's and wife's experience strongly reson Riveting...We read this aloud at home and I found it to be beautifully and movingly written, by turns charming and horrifying. Her articulation of the most subtle nuances of experience, the profoundly different narrative voices she assumes like an experienced character actress, and the way she fluently plays with language, show Kingsolver's love and mastery of her craft.
Having been brought up by ultra-religious Christian parents myself, I found the children's and wife's experience strongly resonant and painfully authentic.
I think you have to have lived it to know how accurate and insightful she is in her exposition of the nature of evangelical authoritarianism, it's effect on character, the power of rigidly imposed gender roles, the monomaniacal aspects of monotheism, the not-so-subtle and pervasive racism and sexism.
I think the comparison to imperialism is smack on, and a valuable association that deserves, even needs, to be drawn, particularly in the world in which we live today, where the confluence of these two rivers of inhumanity threaten more every day to once again overflow with devastating consequences.

It cannot be too boldly stated that these twin terrors have together shaped our world for the worse, anciently and modernly.
As a victim and survivor of both, to greater or lesser extent, Ms. Kingsolver has a natural right to portray them, and does so authoritatively.
Both have an inherent dismissivness toward the dignity and value of individuals, engendering similar resentment, hopelessness, and a sense of helplessness, in their victims.
The conceit and destructiveness inherent in both clearly make them horses of the very same color. We ignore their resemblance and relationship at our peril.
It's important to know that this is Kingsolver's most autobiographical novel. She's writing from personal experience, as well as an impressively large body of knowledge about Africa and it's politics.
She knows these people and places like the back of her hand.
Like her main characters, she carries them wherever she goes.
...more

flag 107 likes · Like · see review

Aug 21, 2016 Warwick rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, dr-congo

RACHEL

I am the oldest sister and a typical teenage girl, oh-jeez-oh-man. All I want is to go back to Georgia and kiss boys outside the soda bar, but instead here I am stuck in the Congo with unconditioned hair and ants and caterpillars and scary-but-with-a-heart-of-gold black people. Jeez Louise, the life of a missionary's daughter. Also I make a whole lot of hilarious Malabarisms, that's just one of the tenants of my faith. There's two of them now! Man oh man.

LEAH

The other day, Anatole rushed i ...more

flag 106 likes · Like · see review

Sep 04, 2008 Fabian rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommended to Fabian by: Entertainment Weekly

Religious devotion many times leads to fanaticism which kills the family unit. This happens everyday--here is a chronicle of this. This diluted (& superscary-in-a-different-way) version of "The Shining" is complex, emotional. It is written similarly to "The Joy Luck Club", in different vignettes all of which are articulated in a distinguished, feminine P.O.V.

The location is the Congo before and after independence--the plot is about a preacher who treks to the jungle with his family. We end u ...more

flag 102 likes · Like · see review

Jun 02, 2018 Matt rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Matt by: Farrah

Shelves: audiobook, equinox-book-challenge

Accepting a book recommendation offered up by my fellow Equinox Book Challenge participant, I chose to explore another novel related to the struggles of a maturing African continent. Making their way to the Belgian Congo in 1959, Nathan Price, his wife, and four daughter are ready to commence their missionary work. Arriving with everything they feel they might need, the Prices begin their journey, armed with Jesus, as they are surrounded with the locals in a jungle community. However, early on d Accepting a book recommendation offered up by my fellow Equinox Book Challenge participant, I chose to explore another novel related to the struggles of a maturing African continent. Making their way to the Belgian Congo in 1959, Nathan Price, his wife, and four daughter are ready to commence their missionary work. Arriving with everything they feel they might need, the Prices begin their journey, armed with Jesus, as they are surrounded with the locals in a jungle community. However, early on during their time, the Price women tell of all the changes they could not have predicted while still in the comforts of their Bethlehem, Georgia home. While Nathan seeks to convert the Congolese population—still stuck on their own spirits and medicine men— with his evangelical Baptist ways, the others begin to see that nothing is as it seems. American staples are of no use to anyone in the Belgian Congo and the learning curve is as sharp as can be. With Belgium ready to hand over control of the country to the Congolese, a political vacuum develops, where foreigners are painted with a single brush. Both sides in the Cold War seek to create a new ally, elbowing their way in, hoping to develop 20th century quasi-colonial territory in Africa, more along ideological lines than those of traditional tribe or cultural brethren. One cannot miss that Congo is rife with natural resources that both the Americans and Soviets might like, though this remains a whispered or ne’er spoken fact. While the Price family soon learns that it will take more than the presence of the Holy Spirit to protect them in this foreign land, each has a struggle to better understand their surroundings and themselves, all in the hopes of completing their mission. Personal growth and grief arrive in equal measure, leaving everyone to reassess their role in the Congo, as political and social stability disintegrates with each passing day. As the novel progresses, the Price girls mature into women, using their Congolese experiences to shape their adult lives, forever altered by what they have experienced. An interesting novel that pushes some of the limits of understanding from a missionary perspective, Kingsolver pulls no punches and lays out her agenda throughout. I’d surely recommend this novel to those who seek to explore an interesting journey through the jungles of Africa, prepared to digest and synthesise symbolism of the highest order and non-Western sets of beliefs.

While I have heard of this novel over the years, I never felt drawn to read it. Admittedly, I knew nothing of it and perhaps judged the book by its title—the lesser of the two evil things avid book readers with literary blinders tend to do—and chose to mentally shelve it. After reading two novels about the horrors of South Africa under the system of apartheid, I was ready for something new, but still on the continent. Learning that Kingsolver set this book in Africa, I wondered if it might complement some of the topics about which I had recently read, while also offering me something with a little less political frustration. Kingsolver presents an all-consuming novel that pushes the limits through the eyes of an American family, at times offering the presumptive ignorance of missionaries while also exploring massive clashes in cultural differences between the Western world and African villages. Kingsolver creates a wonderful core of characters, primarily the Price family, allowing her to paint dichotomous pictures of the proper way to live. Using various narratives led by all five women in the family, the reader is able to see the Belgian Congo/Congo/Zaire through different eyes. Backstories are plentiful, as are the character flaws that each possess, but all five are also keen to interpret their familial head—Pastor Nathan Price—with their own biases. This surely enriches the larger story as well as permitting the reader to feel a closer connection to all those who play a central role in the story’s progress. Kingsolver weighs in, both bluntly and in a wonderfully subtle manner, about the role of imperialism in African countries, which later led to a political game of Cold War chess and bloodshed to tweak the choices the Congolese made as they shed the shackles of their oppressors. Personal growth remains one of the key themes in the book, as all the girls become women and, by the latter portion of the book, their lives as adults and parts of families of their own. Kingsolver keeps the reader hooked throughout as she spins this wonderful tale that forces the reader to digest so much in short order. I am happy to have been able to read this piece and take away much from it, without the need to feel as frustrated as I might have been during my apartheid experience. Still, there is much to be said about the ‘backwards’ interpretation Europeans and missionaries had when spying the African jungle communities.

Kudos, Madam Kingsolver, for such a wonderful novel. I took much from all you had to say and will likely return to find more of your writings, hoping they are just as exciting.

This book fulfills Topic # 1: Recommendation from Another, in the Equinox #3 Book Challenge. A special thank you to Farrah (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5...) for the suggestion!

Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/

A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/... ...more

flag 105 likes · Like · see review

Jul 22, 2017 Joe Valdez rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-general

My introduction to the fiction of Barbara Kingsolver is The Poisonwood Bible, her 1998 novel that seems to be a staple of book clubs the world over, from Oprah's to the Dive Bar Book Club I've joined and which picked this as their August read. This book was an assignment and took me out of the rhythm I was in reading westerns, so that might have something to do with my crankiness and general disappointment of it in summary. Kingsolver immersed me in extraordinary description, materializing the d ...more

flag 90 likes · Like · see review

Feb 22, 2016 Phrynne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This one took me a long time to read, not just because it has a lot of pages but also because I had to read every single word carefully and re read the best bits too! It is so beautifully written and so very evocative of the atmosphere of Africa.

It is told in the five different voices of the female members of the family and I have to admit to liking Adah's chapters the most. She has a wonderful way of looking at things and I especially liked the way she referred to her bible thumping father as ...more

flag 89 likes · Like · see review

Jun 06, 2009 Tatiana rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: people who are NOT hard-core republicans and/or Christians

Shelves: foreign-lands, contemporary, 1001, pulitzer, 2010

This book literally put me into rage. In fact, I had to put it aside and read something a tad lighter (compared to The Poisonwood Bible even depressing The Lonely Polygamist is a lighter read) to be able to fall asleep. Reading about social injustices can do this to me sometimes.

The Poisonwood Bible is a story of a Baptist preacher Nathan Price who chooses to become a missionary in the Belgian Congo of 1959. Along with his unwavering beliefs and desire to bring salvation and enlightenment to sav This book literally put me into rage. In fact, I had to put it aside and read something a tad lighter (compared to The Poisonwood Bible even depressing The Lonely Polygamist is a lighter read) to be able to fall asleep. Reading about social injustices can do this to me sometimes.

The Poisonwood Bible is a story of a Baptist preacher Nathan Price who chooses to become a missionary in the Belgian Congo of 1959. Along with his unwavering beliefs and desire to bring salvation and enlightenment to savage natives, Nathan takes his wife and four daughters to Africa. His attempts to introduce Christianity to the residents of a tiny Congolese village are mostly fruitless, as Price knows very little of their language, culture, and religious beliefs. But the preacher is relentless, even when he hears the news of the looming Congolese independence and is warned to leave the country immediately because any westerner is unsafe in the country which is trying to free itself of decades-long white oppression. Nathan decides it is his calling to stay and continue his righteous work at all cost to him and his family. This decision does cost the family dearly. Not one of them comes out of this experience unscathed.

The novel is narrated from the POV of 5 Price women - Nathan's wife and daughters. Each has her own perspective on Nathan's work and on what is happening in the Congo. While none of the women physically takes part in a whirlwind of events the Congo is going through - the Congo's fight for independence from Belgium, first election of the Prime Minister, the CIA-staged coup to eliminate this democratically chosen Prime Minister and to install his replacement who would guarantee the West's access to the Congo's natural resources and safeguard the country as a pillar of capitalism in Africa - each has to carry a burden of responsibility for what has happened to their family specifically and the country in general. The reactions vary from solidified dismissal of the natives and rampant feeling of white supremacy to complete acceptance of the responsibility for atrocities forced onto the African nations by whites.

In a way, the Price family is a symbol of colonialism. Nathan Price symbolizes the colonialist forces that think it is their right (if not responsibility) to bring change to the countries they misunderstand and look down upon, at any cost, including destroying people's cultures, religions, and leadership. And the Price women are representative of all of us, unwitting participants in all of this, who may chose to close our eyes and pretend nothing is happening or to try to do something drastic about it or in the least to acknowledge that such cultural arrogance is wrong.

I suppose some readers will this book off-putting because of its seeming liberal agenda and its negative portrayal of both Christianity and the West (mostly America). Well, I'll leave them to admire Rachel Price's POV and live in denial. I personally found this book very enlightening. Kingsolver speaks my language.

The reason why I am giving The Poisonwood Bible 4 stars and not 5 is because of the last few pages which left me feeling rather helpless. It seems, nothing that we do (including absolutely good-intentioned vaccinations and efforts to save children's lives) can bring anything but hardship to Africa. I guess, Kingsolver's last advice is to leave Africa to its own devices... ...more

flag 81 likes · Like · see review

May 29, 2008 Rebecca rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: People interested in Congolese history

I read "The Poisonwood Bible" for two reasons: Because I've always wanted to read a Barbara Kingsolver book and I am intrigued by secular takes on Christianity in modern-day writings.

I just finished it today. It is the story of a missionary family's trek to the Congo, told through the eyes of the four daughters and their mother. The father is a misguided preacher who is trying to escape past demons by force-feeding Christ to a culture that he has neither researched nor desires to understand (the I read "The Poisonwood Bible" for two reasons: Because I've always wanted to read a Barbara Kingsolver book and I am intrigued by secular takes on Christianity in modern-day writings.

I just finished it today. It is the story of a missionary family's trek to the Congo, told through the eyes of the four daughters and their mother. The father is a misguided preacher who is trying to escape past demons by force-feeding Christ to a culture that he has neither researched nor desires to understand (the name of the book is a reference to his misuse of the native language -- so instead of calling the Bible something holy, he's referring to it as a poisonous tree).

All in all, I am glad I read the book -- the discussion of the Congo's tumultuous history and the commentary on how the United States and various European nations have tried and failed to control something so wild and free was very interesting. It is a theme I saw repeatedly play out in this book -- when people/nations are unwilling to take the time to understand where others are coming from (be it individuals or people groups), the result is long-running anguish, regret and the destruction of lives and families. The writing can be very good -- the death of one of the daughters (which is disclosed early in the novel, although she is not identified) had me literally weeping over this book.

That all said. There were parts of the book that dragged for me -- and the whole catalyst for why these four girls and their mother were transplanted to Africa (a highly controlling husband/father) was never completely resolved to my satisfaction (he sort of disappears in to the jungle halfway through the book, never to return).

From a Christian standpoint, I was also disappointed in how missionaries were generally portrayed -- self-seeking, greedy and Bible-thumping morons who were either frothing at the mouth or couldn't get out of the country fast enough when the going got tough. There were also doctrinal errors (I spent several years as a Baptist and I never attended a church that believed baptism was a necessary ticket in to heaven -- quite the contrary, actually).

It would have been a fascinating foil to have a truly Christ-focused, God-seeking missionary family in these people's midsts ... while I appreciate how the only "good" missionary in this book didn't completely reject God, his buffet-style approach to what he accepted/discarded about the Bible was disturbing. Yet it was clearly held up as the preferred example for the rest of characters in the book. ...more

flag 77 likes · Like · see review

Jun 08, 2019 BlackOxford rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: american, favourites

Avoidable Self-Abuse

Women put up with a great deal from men. This is a truism which can’t be reinforced too frequently, if only to remind women that they often collaborate with masculine arrogance to their own - and the world’s - disadvantage. Getting out from under, as it were, requires hitting them where it hurts - not in the private parts but in the intimacies of family life. Essentially, men have no defense against feminine dismissal of their pretensions as merely foolish.

Most of the common Avoidable Self-Abuse

Women put up with a great deal from men. This is a truism which can’t be reinforced too frequently, if only to remind women that they often collaborate with masculine arrogance to their own - and the world’s - disadvantage. Getting out from under, as it were, requires hitting them where it hurts - not in the private parts but in the intimacies of family life. Essentially, men have no defense against feminine dismissal of their pretensions as merely foolish.

Most of the common male presumptions are contained in The Poisonwood Bible - superior intellect, more serious spiritual existence, greater ability to organise and act, and a keener insight about what it takes to survive in the world. These are observed, suffered, and analysed by a family of four girls who are dragooned with their mother to a remote mission station in the Congo in the early 1960’s. They submit because they have been taught to do so. Submission is a requirement of their interpretation of love, loyalty, and family commitment.

Reverend Paterfamilias is of course incompetent in every aspect of the family’s African endeavour. From his doctrinaire dismissal of local culture, to his refusal to take advice on gardening, he is a persistent failure. The women compensate. The man considers he has learned. He hasn’t. He remains as fundamentally ignorant as he has always been.

“Our Father“, as the disabled daughter refers to him sarcastically, is a misogynistic religious fanatic who would crumble into a heap of ash without the constant hidden and unappreciated support by his female family members and the other women of the village they inhabit. The Reverend is yet another species of animal which thrives in Africa: the parasite.

It takes their African life and its cultural dislocation to demonstrate to the women just how parasitical the man is. Their experience slowly relativises the certainties of their previous cultural existence. From the rationalisation of racism, to the Calvinist mores of work and dress, to the subtleties of their own subservience, they begin to recognise the elements of the cultural prison which encloses them and the oppressive tactics of their chief warder.

“How we wives and mothers do perish at the hands of our own righteousness.” This is the point of revelation for the Reverend’s wife. Unlike her husband, she recognises her true helplessness, her profound vulnerability to the world as it is without the mythical protections of either religion or technology. She also begins to understand that most of those purported protections are beneficial not to her but to her husband.

One by one all the women of the family come to recognise the sole male as the exploitative fool he is. “Everything you’re sure is right can be wrong in another place.” Is how one daughter puts it. In fact he was wrong anyplace, as many men are, men who wield power, who coerce and make victims of those who do not. They need not be fundamentalist preachers of course; but they generally have the same kind of ambition to dominate.

Oddly, this realisation leads to guilt. In part perhaps because it is as much about the culture from which they have emerged and to which they will not return. But mainly because their historic subjugation has led to avoidable tragedy. They should have known better than to have confidence in this man and his delusions. They couldn’t, of course, without the experiences he had imposed upon them. Hence the paradoxical guilt. ...more

flag 74 likes · Like · see review

Oct 20, 2017 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

My local book club is discussing this book tomorrow morning --

I read this before I joined Goodreads. This story was 'gripping' -(I still remember my gut was hurting at times) -

This novel left a lasting -- YEARS LASTING impression --

Highly recommend it!!!!!!!!

flag 75 likes · Like · see review

Nov 01, 2017 Beata rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Bought the book a year ago and it took me some time to start reading it. I was encouraged to purchase it by some reviews I'd read and though it waited some time to be chosen as my next read, I reckon I am fully rewarded. The story of an American Baptist missionary family that find themselves in Congo just before it gains its independence is superb. Five narrators of different ages telling different stories add to the incredible atmosphere of colonial Congo and I'm enjoying both the stories and t ...more

flag 70 likes · Like · see review

Apr 25, 2008 Meghan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book really made me think about why we adopt certain beliefs: what comes from the environment we are immersed in vs. what comes from within. I loved how Kingsolver shows the world view of an entire family who is experiencing the same basic situations in the Congo, but each member deals with these things very differently. It also brings up issues with culture differences and the obstacles in trying to persuade a culture to change. It poses the question of should they change, is the American This book really made me think about why we adopt certain beliefs: what comes from the environment we are immersed in vs. what comes from within. I loved how Kingsolver shows the world view of an entire family who is experiencing the same basic situations in the Congo, but each member deals with these things very differently. It also brings up issues with culture differences and the obstacles in trying to persuade a culture to change. It poses the question of should they change, is the American culture superior, is Christianity superior, is democracy superior, is wealth superior to poverty? Each character answers these questions differently. How our actions or inactions affect other people is another commentary this novel addresses. The story brings up ethical issues that arise in getting involved with other countries: do we do it because we believe we are superior or to exploit their resources or to sincerely try to help other people have a better life? Lots of interesting things to think about in this book.
Here is the synopsis from Amazon.com: As any reader of The Mosquito Coast knows, men who drag their families to far-off climes in pursuit of an Idea seldom come to any good, while those familiar with At Play in the Fields of the Lord or Kalimantaan understand that the minute a missionary sets foot on the fictional stage, all hell is about to break loose. So when Barbara Kingsolver sends missionary Nathan Price along with his wife and four daughters off to Africa in The Poisonwood Bible, you can be sure that salvation is the one thing they're not likely to find. The year is 1959 and the place is the Belgian Congo. Nathan, a Baptist preacher, has come to spread the Word in a remote village reachable only by airplane. To say that he and his family are woefully unprepared would be an understatement: "We came from Bethlehem, Georgia, bearing Betty Crocker cake mixes into the jungle," says Leah, one of Nathan's daughters. But of course it isn't long before they discover that the tremendous humidity has rendered the mixes unusable, their clothes are unsuitable, and they've arrived in the middle of political upheaval as the Congolese seek to wrest independence from Belgium. In addition to poisonous snakes, dangerous animals, and the hostility of the villagers to Nathan's fiery take-no-prisoners brand of Christianity, there are also rebels in the jungle and the threat of war in the air. Could things get any worse?
In fact they can and they do. The first part of The Poisonwood Bible revolves around Nathan's intransigent, bullying personality and his effect on both his family and the village they have come to. As political instability grows in the Congo, so does the local witch doctor's animus toward the Prices, and both seem to converge with tragic consequences about halfway through the novel. From that point on, the family is dispersed and the novel follows each member's fortune across a span of more than 30 years. ...more

flag 67 likes · Like · see review

Feb 09, 2013 Jaidee rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: three-stars-books

3 stars !....This book had moments of perfection in its poetic prose (5 star quality) to sections of the most horrible chick-lit (1.5 star quality).

The narrative of the Congo was fascinating both historically and anthropologically. At times I felt connected to the collective unconscious. (view spoiler)

The individual voices of the Price girls and even less so the Price women (when they grew up)did n ...more

flag 63 likes · Like · see review

Apr 26, 2019 Lucy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

“The power is in the balance: we are our injuries, as much as we are our successes.”

This book follows the Reverend Nathan Price and his family; his wife, Ordelia and four children: Rachel, Leah, Adah and Ruth May. Nathan Price becomes a missionary and moves his family deep into the Congo, far from their home lives in Atlanta, to teach those in the village the ways of believing in the one "true" God. Upon arrival the Congo is completely different to their typical way of life, and through the eyes “The power is in the balance: we are our injuries, as much as we are our successes.”

This book follows the Reverend Nathan Price and his family; his wife, Ordelia and four children: Rachel, Leah, Adah and Ruth May. Nathan Price becomes a missionary and moves his family deep into the Congo, far from their home lives in Atlanta, to teach those in the village the ways of believing in the one "true" God. Upon arrival the Congo is completely different to their typical way of life, and through the eyes of the women in the family, particularly those of the daughters, we get to imagine their experiences of a different culture and obstacles they face.

This book markedly points out the differences of life of those from being comfortable in the USA to a different lifestyle in the Congo. Not only is the culture and environment a complete shock, but also society is completely different to what the Price family is used to.

This book had beautiful writing and vivid descriptions, especially those of nature and detailing the atmosphere of Congo. This is a compelling read based on family, loneliness, identity, religion and loss.

This book is set around the de-colonisation of the Congo and the years that proceed after it with political tensions running high. It shows the girls when they first arrive, to when some of them leave the Congo and what becomes of them. Not only detailing in the history of the Congo during the 1950's- 1980's and the political tensions arising from it with America's involvement, but also tensions within the family. It is obvious at the start that Nathan Price is thoroughly devout in his religion, using it as punishment for his children if they behave in a way he deems inappropriately. We also witness the differences and tensions among the sisters, all of whom have completely different and often conflicting personalities.

While I say that this book didn't have a happy ending, it had instead a very realistic one instead, as each female in the Price family offer deep reflection of their time in the Congo and the effect this had on them for the decisions in their lives. ...more

flag 59 likes · Like · see review

Oct 21, 2018 Peter Boyle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: africa

I had been meaning to read The Poisonwood Bible for the longest time, and it didn't disappoint. It is an epic family saga of vibrant, memorable characters and the enormous challenges they face.

The story begins in the late 1950s. Nathan Price, a stubborn Baptist preacher, decides to take his wife Orleanna and their four daughters to the Belgian Congo, in an attempt to convert the natives to Christianity. The scale of the task soon becomes apparent. The family take up residence in an extremely poo I had been meaning to read The Poisonwood Bible for the longest time, and it didn't disappoint. It is an epic family saga of vibrant, memorable characters and the enormous challenges they face.

The story begins in the late 1950s. Nathan Price, a stubborn Baptist preacher, decides to take his wife Orleanna and their four daughters to the Belgian Congo, in an attempt to convert the natives to Christianity. The scale of the task soon becomes apparent. The family take up residence in an extremely poor village, where food is scarce and the climate is brutal - a long way from the American luxury they are used to. This alien environment tests their resilience to the very limit. And though they are initially welcomed by the locals, Nathan's missionary efforts are met with no little resistance. Some of the girls adjust to the new way of life better than others, but it seems as though there is always another obstacle for them to tackle.

Each chapter is narrated by a different family member, except for Nathan. It's a clever idea, as we discover the impact that this abusive, monstrous man had on his victims. The voice of each Price daughter also becomes clear. Rachel, the eldest, is self-absorbed and materialistic. Leah is smart and the most sociable of the siblings - she worships her father even though they have blazing rows. Adah, her twin, is disabled since birth, and remains mostly silent, though we learn from her thoughts that her mind is sharp and poetic. Ruth May is only five years old, yet she can pick up on the worry and unease of her mother. Orleanna's account looks back on their life in Africa with sadness and regret, and hints at a major tragedy that befell the family during their stay.

The event, when it occurs, is indeed shocking. The story then proceeds for over 150 pages, and this is my one criticism of the book - it does feel a little long-winded. I suppose Kingsolver wanted to show how each of the Prices coped with such misfortune and moved on with their lives. However, this is a minor complaint. The Poisonwood Bible is one of those unforgettable reads. It examines weighty themes like race, religion and politics from so many angles and manages to wrap it all up into such a rich and compelling story. It's an ambitious, powerful yarn that Barbara Kingsolver spins and she pulls it off with real aplomb. ...more

flag 54 likes · Like · see review

Jan 12, 2015 Duane rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016-book-challenge, africa, rated-books, reviewed-books, historical-fiction, audio-books

The ratings and reviews for this book are mixed, and I can understand that because I am balancing some love/hate feelings myself. But it's compelling in it's unique way, and it's certainly tragic.

The story is about a fanatical Baptist preacher from Georgia who takes his wife and 4 daughters on a Christian mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. If that's
not the perfect recipe for disaster then I haven't seen one.

The history of this part of Africa, especially the political history, is so convolute ...more

flag 54 likes · Like · see review

Sep 05, 2007 JG (The Introverted Reader) rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: gave_away, fiction, z_setting_congo, z_setting_us, z_read_in_2007, 2_stars, z_author_american, reviewed

The Poisonwood Bible is about a Southern Baptist family that decides to go be missionaries in the Congo in 1960, just before the country was supposedly granted its independence from Belgium. The Prices didn't bother with language or culture training, they just took off to spread the word about Jesus. Of course they weren't prepared for what they found, so of course they got in a lot of trouble.

I can't exactly put my finger on what I didn't like. I just know that it felt like it dragged on and on ...more

flag 49 likes · Like · see review

Aug 21, 2011 Melki rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: family-based-fiction, best-of-2011

This book has done nothing to change my opinion that all missionaries belong in large black kettles, boiling slowly over an open flame, while the natives they had hoped to convert stand hungrily by, waiting for a hearty meal.

Though technically a minor character in the book, patriarch Nathan Price looms large over his small tribe of women. With no regard for the well-being of his family, he drags his wife and four daughters to deepest Africa, because, of course, he is on a mission from God. Pric This book has done nothing to change my opinion that all missionaries belong in large black kettles, boiling slowly over an open flame, while the natives they had hoped to convert stand hungrily by, waiting for a hearty meal.

Though technically a minor character in the book, patriarch Nathan Price looms large over his small tribe of women. With no regard for the well-being of his family, he drags his wife and four daughters to deepest Africa, because, of course, he is on a mission from God. Price embodies everything that I find wrong with religion - close-minded rigidity, the belief that every word of the bible is absolute and must be obeyed, and the uniquely Christian belief that man has been given permission to run roughshod over all of nature. His attitude toward his wife and children is scandalous. States one daughter - he considers himself "captain of a stinking mess of female minds." He abuses them both verbally and physically. In short, he is one of the most loathsome characters I've ever met.

Price turns out to be unpopular with the natives as well. He disregards completely their established beliefs and traditions. His attempts at baptism in a crocodile-filled river are met with understandable distain. Ultimately, it his love of religion over his family that is his undoing.

Much of the book deals with the struggle of the Congo to find independence, a chapter in history of which I was woefully ignorant. The United States plays a shameful role in orchestrating many of the coups. Perhaps this is why we were not taught about it in school.

The book is narrated in turns by the daughters. Each girl picks up the story and moves it along, rather than simply providing yet another viewpoint of previous incidents. The girls all have unique voices. Leah gives a straight-forward, even handed narrative, always trying to see both sides of the story. Her twin, Adah, who suffers from some brain damage, does not speak aloud and is fond of anagrams. Ruth May, the youngest child, adapts most easily to life in Africa. And then there is vain, supercilious Rachel, the oldest girl, who sometimes hilariously misuses words - "It's a woman's provocative to change her mind." Ironically, she is the sister who manages to best sum up the saddest facts of the book - Father thought "he'd save the children and what does he do but lose his own?" and "You can't just sashay into the jungle aiming to change it over to the Christian style, without expecting the jungle to change you right back!"

This is a good story, well told and memorable. It is also a learning experience. ...more

flag 46 likes · Like · see review

Dec 19, 2011 Ted rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: women-s-works, lit-american, beach-fun-fiction, reviews-liked

This was my introduction to Barbara Kingsolver, and what an intro it was. ~~Though I'll not re-read the book,~~ I thought it was an absolute masterpiece, the best book I'd read in years!

Told in different voices, of various members of a missionary family in the Congo, it tells of the fanaticism of the Baptist missionary father, and the trials, tribulations, and reachings for life-affirmation of his daughters. (I know that's a pretty awkward sentence - what can I say - like s.penk I'm past-one beer he ...more

flag 46 likes · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Reading 1001: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver	3	9	Jun 29, 2019 03:33AM
Temecula Valley B...: Poisonwood Bible Adaptation Planned for HBO	3	11	Mar 22, 2019 10:50AM
Around the Year i...: The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver	10	109	Mar 02, 2019 08:38PM

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Fiction

6,571 users

Historical > Historical Fiction

2,775 users

Cultural > Africa

1,352 users

Classics

749 users

See top shelves…

About Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver

10,623 followers

Barbara Kingsolver is an American novelist, essayist, and poet. She was raised in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in Africa in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in Biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona and worked as a freelance writer before she began writing novels. Her most famous works include The Poisonwood Bible, the tale of a missionary family in the Congo, Barbara Kingsolver is an American novelist, essayist, and poet. She was raised in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in Africa in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in Biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona and worked as a freelance writer before she began writing novels. Her most famous works include The Poisonwood Bible, the tale of a missionary family in the Congo, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a non-fiction account of her family's attempts to eat locally.

Her work often focuses on topics such as social justice, biodiversity, and the interaction between humans and their communities and environments. Each of her books published since 1993 have been on The New York Times Best Seller list. Kingsolver has received numerous awards, including the UK's Orange Prize for Fiction 2010, for The Lacuna and the National Humanities Medal. She has been nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

In 2000, Kingsolver established the Bellwether Prize to support "literature of social change."

Kingsolver was born in Annapolis, Maryland in 1955 and grew up in Carlisle in rural Kentucky. When Kingsolver was seven years old, her father, a physician, took the family to the former Republic of Congo in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Her parents worked in a public health capacity, and the family lived without electricity or running water.

After graduating from high school, Kingsolver attended DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana on a music scholarship, studying classical piano. Eventually, however, she changed her major to biology when she realized that "classical pianists compete for six job openings a year, and the rest of [them:] get to play 'Blue Moon' in a hotel lobby." She was involved in activism on her campus, and took part in protests against the Vietnam war. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 1977, and moved to France for a year before settling in Tucson, Arizona, where she would live for much of the next two decades. In 1980 she enrolled in graduate school at the University of Arizona, where she earned a Master's degree in ecology and evolutionary biology.

Kingsolver began her full-time writing career in the mid 1980s as a science writer for the university, which eventually lead to some freelance feature writing. She began her career in fiction writing after winning a short story contest in a local Phoenix newspaper. In 1985 she married Joseph Hoffmann; their daughter Camille was born in 1987. She moved with her daughter to Tenerife in the Canary Islands for a year during the first Gulf war, mostly due to frustration over America's military involvement. After returning to the US in 1992, she separated from her husband.

In 1994, Kingsolver was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from her alma mater, DePauw University. She was also married to Steven Hopp, that year, and their daughter, Lily, was born in 1996. In 2004, Kingsolver moved with her family to a farm in Washington County, Virginia, where they currently reside. In 2008, she received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Duke University, where she delivered a commencement address entitled "How to be Hopeful".

In a 2010 interview with The Guardian, Kingsolver says, "I never wanted to be famous, and still don't, [...:] the universe rewarded me with what I dreaded most." She says created her own website just to compete with a plethora of fake ones, "as a defence to protect my family from misinformation. Wikipedia abhors a vacuum. If you don't define yourself, it will get done for you in colourful ways." ...more