The Poisonwood Bible

ISBN 10 : 1439571384 ISBN 13 : 9781439571385

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

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.

Revue de presse :

The Poisonwood Bible shows what happens when one of the most talented writers of our generation comes to maturity... [It] ranks with the most ambitious works of postcolonial literature and it should at last establish Kingsolver s reputation in Europe as one of America s most gifted novelists. (Independent on Sunday)

The Poisonwood Bible is a book club classic... The novel begins as a family saga but evolves into a polemic about how African lives are ruined by Western greed and fear ... There is humour, history, love and loss. The characterisation is exquisite. --(The Times)

A quantum-leap breakthrough... learned, tragicomic and sprawling. --(NY Times Magazine)

Brilliant. Now, that is no sort of measured critical reaction but it is how I feel I must begin with a one-word shout of praise for this superb epic novel... [Barbara Kingsolver] says she spent thirty years waiting for the wisdom and maturity to dare to write this book. Never has such patience been more rewarded. --(Margaret Forster Literary Review)

À propos de cette édition

• ISBN 10: 1439571384
• ISBN 13: 9781439571385
• Reliure: Belle reliure