Flight Behavior

By: Barbara Kingsolver

Narrated by: Barbara Kingsolver

Length: 16 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times best seller

Indie best seller

Barnes & Noble best seller

National best seller

Amazon Best Book of the Month

Indie Next Pick

Best book of the year: New York Times Notable, Washington Post Notable, Amazon Editor’s Choice, USA Today’s Top Ten (#1), St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kansas City Star

Prize-winning author: Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Dayton Literary Peace Prize (Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award), Orange Prize for Fiction

Prize-winning author: National Humanities Medal, Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Orange Prize for Fiction, Dayton Literary Peace Prize (Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award)

"Kingsolver is a gifted magician of words." (Time)

The extraordinary New York Times best-selling author of The Lacuna (winner of the Orange Prize), The Poisonwood Bible (nominated for the Pulitzer Prize), and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver returns with a truly stunning and unforgettable work.

Flight Behavior is a brilliant and suspenseful novel set in present day Appalachia; a breathtaking parable of catastrophe and denial that explores how the complexities we inevitably encounter in life lead us to believe in our particular chosen truths. Kingsolver's riveting story concerns a young wife and mother on a failing farm in rural Tennessee who experiences something she cannot explain, and how her discovery energizes various competing factions - religious leaders, climate scientists, environmentalists, politicians - trapping her in the center of the conflict and ultimately opening up her world.

Flight Behavior is arguably Kingsolver's most thrilling and accessible novel to date, and like so many other of her acclaimed works, represents contemporary American fiction at its finest.

©2012 Barbara Kingsolver (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers

I couldn't make it past the horrible narration.

If I come across the physical book, I will read it. The narration was so terrible that I couldn't make it far enough to get hooked. I tried 4 times.

Master storyteller and narrator

Wow, can she narrate! Love her voice, tone, and cadence. What a treat to listen to this amazing author recite the beautiful story she wrote.

The return to Prodigal Summer.

What made the experience of listening to Flight Behavior the most enjoyable?

I love Barbara Kingsolver's writing and her narration is perfect.

What did you like best about this story?

There is so much wisdom and compassion in this book. I found myself constantly stopping to listen to a line or a section again and again hoping to commit them to memory.

What does Barbara Kingsolver bring to the story that you wouldn???t experience if you just read the book?

I have all her work on audible so it is like listening to an old friend.

Not Kingslover's best work

Is there anything you would change about this book?

This novel is s.l.o.w... Wow, I kept thinking something exciting was going to happen--it never did.

Has Flight Behavior turned you off from other books in this genre?

FB has no real characters to fall in love with.

Any additional comments?

This is a novel to skip--even if you love butterflies.

Life Altering

Any additional comments?

How to review this book without preaching to the choir and putting off the naysayers to climate change. Maybe those numbers are fewer now but this story is a call to action for all of us. Cloaked in the engaging tale of a smart woman stuck in Podunkville USA and longing to get out is the amazingly accessible theme of what is happening to our planet and why. The author is the narrator and does her heroine, Dellarobia, and her other characters proud. She doesn't ladle on the Southern accent as she inhabits the voices of the local folk. Refreshingly, they are not painted with the all-to-often broad brush of ignorance but as people struggling to make ends meet as best they can. Because they get their strength from their faith they consider the unexpected convergence of millions of butterflies to their Tennessee mountain as a blessing from God. This story offers a respectful conversation between those seeing the alarming aspects of it from a scientific point of view with those who have little information about the usual habits of these beautiful creatures. There is hope for our future in the heartbreakingly real kindergartener, Preston, who longs to know about nature and the world. But every flawed character becomes dear as the listener is given time to get to know them.

I wish I could give this book to everyone I know.

Great story. Great author. Poor narration

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Story is great. Wish I had read it as the author is the narrator and is poor especially her Jamaican (?) accent.

Any additional comments?

If this is never rerecorded with a professional narrator, read it instead. Sorry I love audio books but.....

Watching the flight....

I've not been a total Barbara Kingsolver fan... some of her books were amazing, and others lost me in the first chapter .... I did have to listen to the first part 3 times before I understood where she was headed, but after that I was hooked.
This is a story of culture clashes, environmental issues, and the human condition. Dellarobia, an unlikely heroine, is a bright and articulate woman who is married to the dullard who fathered her children, and stuck in a life of second hand stores and family dysfunction. As she witnesses an environmental oddity, she is thrust into a world that has been hidden from her by her own fate.
Kingslover weaves a great tale of values, yet some of the story lines get tied up in a hurried manner. Her narration is crisp, but the character voices are a bit beyond her range. That aside, the story is satisfying and enlightening on many levels.

Couldn’t get into this book

I love this author but this is not her best work by a long shot

Just, wow.

Having grown up in a similar landscape, the characters, dialogue, and mindset of the characters in this book hit a very special place in my heart. The fear of not wanting to be wrong, or bad, or evil, or different all combine to become a fear of change and self-exploration. It's so difficult to describe this concept or landscape, but through storytelling, Kingsolver absolutely nails it in the most beautiful, thought-provoking way. This book is powerful, but goes down so smooth. 10/10!

Outstanding

Loved this book. While some other reviewers disparaged Kingsolver's narration of her own book, I found her narration excellent and refreshing because she was certain of the characters' intonation 100% of the time. And her accent accorded with the Appalachian area of which she wrote. I was greatly drawn into the lives of the main characters, and could picture their world perfectly through Kingsolver's lens. I loved the byplay between the main character and her mother-in-law. Wonderful. Both sides of the political and socio-economic spectrum were well represented. The ecological event described in the book, although not factual, could have been and may still happen, who knows, given the rapid onset of climate change, and the way it has begun to affect large numbers of every type of species. The reaction to the event by each person in the community was skilfully drawn, showing us how people tend to react based on their pre-existing belief structures. Masterfully done. Brilliant.