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News & Reviews
WORD: Barbara Kingsolver goes narrative
nonfiction with ‘Animal, Vegetable, Miracle’
Best-selling novelist and essayist Barbara
Kingsolver
has an unexpected book launching today (May 1). In her first narrative
nonfiction title, ‘Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,’ she describes her
family’s adventures as they move to a farm and realign their lives with
their surroundings, publisher HarperCollins announced.
Kingsolver, who
has authored twelve books of fiction, poetry, and
creative nonfiction including novels like 'The Bean Trees' and 'The
Poisonwood Bible,' goes on a journey away from the industrial-food
pipeline to a rural life in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Adding to the
intrigue, they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood,
grow it themselves, or learn to live without it.
Their search yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex life and
overly zealous zucchini plants, en route to a food culture that's
better for the neighborhood and also better on the table. Part memoir,
part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle makes a
passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family
life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.
We don’t expect this book is a straight ode to eating organic, though.
In
an excerpt, Kingsolver wrote:
"As the U.S. population made an unprecedented mad dash for the Sun
Belt, one carload of us paddled against the tide, heading for the
Promised Land where water falls from the sky and green stuff grows all
around. We were about to begin the adventure of realigning our lives
with our food chain.
"Naturally, our first stop was to buy junk food and fossil fuel. . . ."
Kingsolver kicks off a national book tour tonight at 7:30 pm in
Washington, DC, at the Washington National Cathedral and will follow
with stops in several key regions across the US. San Francisco Bay Area
fans can catch her on May 15 at the First Congregational Church in
Berkeley. Other California stops include Book Passage in Corte Madera
and Copperfield’s Books in Santa Rosa (both on May 16). Check out Kingsolver’s
website for more information.
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