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Flight Behavior  By  cover art

Flight Behavior

By: Barbara Kingsolver
Narrated by: Barbara Kingsolver
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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

Featured Article: The 20 Best Audiobooks Read by the Author


There’s an undeniable authenticity in a listen that’s told by the very person who penned it. From iconic memoirs to far-out fantasies, these immersive audio performances are uniquely genuine, all performed in the author’s own voice. If you want to experience how special it can be to listen to a narrative exactly the way it was intended, check out our list of the 20 best audiobooks read by their authors.

What listeners say about Flight Behavior

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Kingsolver is back.

Would you consider the audio edition of Flight Behavior to be better than the print version?

Since I have not read the novel I cannot knowledgeably compare the audio version with the printed version.

What other book might you compare Flight Behavior to and why?

If I compared this novel with her other novels, I would say FLIGHT BEHAVIOR. Is almost as good as the others.

Which character – as performed by Barbara Kingsolver – was your favorite?

My favorite character would have to be main character.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The movie tag line based on this novel might be "One decision to run affects one woman's life forever."

Any additional comments?

Barbara Kingsolver as the narrator brought added pleasure to my listening experience. The one negative to the novel is it becomes a little "preachy" at times. Ms.Kingsolver's motives for writing this novel almost screams at you. Still, she is one of this generation's best storytellers.

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Appalachian modernity

Wonderful story telling with environmental sensitivity and profound insight. The author narration is magnificent companion.

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a bedtime story from a wise woman

If you could sum up Flight Behavior in three words, what would they be?

It is too lovely and too dark and too beautiful and such a home story.
Her descriptions of the children are so full of accurate love.

What other book might you compare Flight Behavior to and why?

Margeret Atwood Handmaids Tale. Doris Lessing - Good Terrorist, Fifth Child, The Marriage between Zones (etc)
Gary Snyder in its writing on nature.

What about Barbara Kingsolver’s performance did you like?

Her love of her own language. The book was not acted. It feels like she made it up as she went along just for you as she speaks.

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three ring circus

What did you love best about Flight Behavior?

the reader (author) loves her characters and makes them realher descriptions are so wonderful. She is now one of my favorite writers and readers

What was one of the most memorable moments of Flight Behavior?

the beginning and ending chapters

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The end of the book. Kingsolver keeps three subjects intertwining all through the book:The urgency of the dangers of global warmingThe relationship of the heroine with her family Two cultures meeting and blending

Any additional comments?

I would like to listen to this book again in a year or so, knowing the story, and being able to focus on it's richness.

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Good book, great message!

I love the way the author gets out a message through an uplifting fictional story. It is long book and is really slow until the halfway point. Good ending

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Beatitifully knitted, meaningful and moving

evocative and educational
important an fun
a book that moves you to laughter while taking you through dreary hell

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Flight Behavior

Amazing story and story telling. I love Barbara Kingsolver's books and this one doesn't disappoint.

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Beautiful Story with interesting characters.

I have always loved Barbara Kingsolver’s writing,.
“Poisonwood Bible” was my favorite, but this is a very close second. The major characters were well developed and relatable. Even the minor characters were described in a way that made them real and interesting and carried the story forward. An example is Dellarobia’s relationship with her Mother-in-law.

This is a story of self realization and survival. I love how Dellarobia’s journey to thrive is mirrored by the Monarchs’s struggle to survive.

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  • M.
  • 03-14-21

A climate sermon in novel form

Totally engaging story, with beautiful language and an imagined, realistically constructed world, tells a science story that is hard to convey with as much emotional punch as this one carries. Important, magical, heart wrenching.

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Reflections

Would love to leave a critique a few days after I listened to a work of art. As I do not want to rush in to the critique.
Basically, I loved this novel.
Loved the description about nature.
Loved the description about the family life. And I enjoyed the positive outcome of the book.
Thank you to Barbara for a great reading!

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