National Bestseller “A blend of breathtaking artistry, encyclopedic knowledge of the natural world. . . and ardent commitment to the supremacy of nature.” —  San Francisco Chronicle In this beautiful novel, Barbara Kingsolver,  New York Times  bestselling author of  Demon Copperhead  and  The Poisonwood Bible , weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives inhabiting the forested mountains and struggling small farms of southern Appalachia. Over the course of one humid summer, as the urge to procreate overtakes the lush countryside, this novel's intriguing protagonists—a reclusive wildlife biologist, a young farmer's wife marooned far from home, and a pair of elderly, feuding neighbors—face disparate predicaments but find connections to one another and to the flora and fauna with whom they necessarily share a place. Their discoveries are embedded inside countless intimate lessons of biology, the realities of small farming, and the final, urgent truth that humans are only one piece of life on earth. This novel covers the expanse of one summer in the lives of several people in a remote area of southern Appalachia. The central theme tying three separate story lines together is the importance, and fragility, of the biological ecosystems found in the natural world. This precarious balance between humans and everything elseDplants, bugs, moths, and mammalsDis examined, tested, rejected, and rejoiced in by a collage of characters, who include Deanna Wolfe, the park ranger who tries to protect a pack of coyotes that miraculously appear on Zebulon Mountain; Lusa Landowski, a city girl with a degree in entomology who raises and sells goat kids; and feuding neighbors Garnett Walker and Nannie Rawley. To follow The Poisonwood Bible would be a daunting task for any writer; for Kingsolver, it would seem to be just about spinning another marvelous, magical yarn, only in a different locale and filled with another batch of endearing, honest people. This time her message is about the environment and intelligent women who are more comfortable with a love of nature than love with a man. Kingsolver reads her own words as lyrically as she writes them. Very highly recommended for all public and academic libraries with audio literature collections.DGloria Maxwell, Penn Valley Community Coll., Kansas City, MO Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. "... a story of the many ways to define family -- human or not... full of joy, warmth, and sweet surprise." -- Creative Loafing "A blend of breathtaking artistry, encyclopedic knowledge of the natural world... and ardent commitment to the supremacy of nature." -- San Francisco Chronicle "A warm, intricately constructed book... with an extraordinary amount of insight and information about the wonders of the invisible world." -- Newsweek "Compelling... Lives that are less simple, and far more passionate, than they appear." -- Glamour Magazine "Kingsolver is a gifted magician of words." -- Time "Ms. Kingsolver's writing is generously well-grafted; choice moments... radiate from nearly every page." -- Wall Street Journal "PRODIGAL SUMMER is full of... tenderness, humour and earthy spirituality... Kingsolver's dialogue is absolutely natural, often funny, and sometimes heartbreaking." -- Christian Science Monitor "[An] extravagantly gifted narrative voice." -- New York Times Book Review "[Kingslover's] sexy, lyrical fifth novel renders our solitary yearnings with a finely trained eye and ear." -- People Magazine Kingsolver deftly addresses the struggle between mankind and nature... A lush... novel of love and loss in Appalachia." -- US Magazine Barbara Kingsolver was born in 1955 and grew up in rural Kentucky. She earned degrees in biology from DePauw University and the University of Arizona, and has worked as a freelance writer and author since 1985. At various times she has lived in England, France, and the Canary Islands, and has worked in Europe, Africa, Asia, Mexico, and South America. She spent two decades in Tucson, Arizona, before moving to southwestern Virginia where she currently resides. Her books, in order of publication, are:  The Bean Trees  (1988),  Homeland  (1989),  Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike  (1989),  Animal Dreams  (1990),  Another America  (1992),  Pigs in Heaven  (1993),  High Tide in Tucson  (1995),  The Poisonwood Bible  (1998),  Prodigal Summer  (2000),  Small Wonder  (2002),  Last Stand: America’s Virgin Lands,  with photographer Annie Griffiths (2002),  Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life  (2007),  The Lacuna  (2009),  Flight Behavior  (2012),  Unsheltered  (2018),  How To Fly (In 10,000 Easy Lessons)  (2020),  Demon Copperhead  (2022), and coauthored with Lily Kingsolver,  Coyote's Wild Home  (2023). She served as editor for Best American Short Stories 2001.  Kingsolver was named one the most important writers of the 20th Century by Writers Digest, and in