Prodigal Summer
{{Short description|Novel by Barbara Kingsolver}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Prodigal Summer
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = File:ProdigalSummer.jpg
| caption = First edition
| author = Barbara Kingsolver
| cover_artist =
| country = United States
| language = English
| series =
| subject =
| genre = Domestic fiction
| publisher = Perennial HarperCollins
| release_date = 2000
| media_type = Print (hardback & paperback) and audio-CD
| pages = 444
| isbn = 0-06-095903-7
| oclc= 48165563
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}
Prodigal Summer (2000) is the fifth novel by American author Barbara Kingsolver. Heavily emphasizing ecological themes and her trademark interweaving plots, this novel tells three stories of love, loss and connections in rural Virginia.
Plot summary
Prodigal Summer tells the story of a small town in Appalachia during a single, humid summer, when three interweaving stories of love, loss and family unfold against the backdrop of the lush wildness of Virginia mountains. The narrative follows Deanna, a solitary woman working as a park ranger; Lusa, a recently widowed entomologist at odds with her late farmer husband's tight-knit family; and Garnett, an old man who dreams of restoring the lineage of the extinct American Chestnut tree.
Kingsolver's extensive education in biology is on display in this book, laden with ecological concepts and biological facts. Her writing also exhibits her knowledge of rural Virginia, where she has lived for decades. In the acknowledgments Kingsolver thanks her Virginia friends and neighbors, as well as Fred Herbard of the American Chestnut Foundation.{{cite web |url=http://www.kingsolver.com/biography/ |title=Brief Biography {{!}} Barbara Kingsolver |website=www.kingsolver.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100714171744/http://www.kingsolver.com/biography/ |archive-date=2010-07-14}}
Reception
The Daily Telegraph reported on reviews from several publications with a rating scale for the novel out of "Love It", "Pretty Good", "Ok", and "Rubbish": Daily Telegraph, Independent, Sunday Telegraph, and New Statesman reviews under "Love It" and Guardian, Times, and Sunday Times reviews under "Pretty Good" and Literary Review and TLS reviews under "Ok".{{cite news |title=Books of the moment: What the papers say |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph/151229231/ |access-date=19 July 2024 |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=27 Jan 2001 |page=58}}{{cite news |title=Books of the moment: What the papers say |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph/154694321/|access-date=19 July 2024 |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=2 Dec 2000 |page=60}}
Notes
External links
{{Wikiquote|Barbara Kingsolver|Prodigal Summer}}
- [http://www.kingsolver.com/books/prodigal-summer.htmlProdigal Summer] at the author's official site
- [https://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/02/arts/02MASL.html New York Times] review of Prodigal Summer
- [http://scienceandfilm.org Science & Film] [http://scienceandfilm.org/articles/2700/meet-the-filmmaker-nicole-kassell interview about film adaptation of Prodigal Summer]
{{Barbara Kingsolver}}
{{Portal bar|Novels}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prodigal Summer}}
Category:Novels by Barbara Kingsolver
Category:Novels set in forests
Category:Novels set in mountains
Category:Novels set in Virginia
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