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Prodigal Summer  By  cover art

Prodigal Summer

By: Barbara Kingsolver
Narrated by: Barbara Kingsolver
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Publisher's summary

Prodigal Summer weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives in southern Appalachia. At the heart of these intertwined narratives is a den of coyotes that have recently migrated into the region. Deanna Wolfe, a reclusive wildlife biologist, watches them from an isolated mountain cabin where she is caught off-guard by Eddie Bondo, a young hunter who comes to invade her most private spaces and her solitary life.

Down the mountain, another web of lives unfolds as Lusa Maluf Landowski, a bookish city girl turned farmer's wife, finds herself in a strange place where she must declare or lose her attachment to the land that has become her own. And a few more miles down the road, a pair of elderly, feuding neighbors tend their respective farms and wrangle about God, pesticides, and the possibilities the future holds.

Over the course of one long summer, these characters find connections to one another, and to the land, and the final, urgent truth that humans are only one piece of life on earth.

©2000 Barbara Kingsolver (P)2000 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Readers will be seduced by [Kingsolver's] effortless prose." (Publishers Weekly)

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What listeners say about Prodigal Summer

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Loved it except for the transition!

The story and the voices are great. However they play bird songs to transition between chapters. The birds are extremely high pitched and twice the regular volume. I had to rip my earbuds out at almost every transition. Shame because I really loved everything else.

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Loved it!

such a nature lovers book about relationship with humans and nature and the web we weave. it was slow at first for me but I'm so glad I hung in there. the character development was wonderful and real. I loved the accent and getting to know these hill people.

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One of the best

I read this book some years ago and loved it. Listening to it now was better than reading it for the first time. Barbara Kingsolver is simply one of the best living writers I know — and the best reader of her own work.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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My favorite book! I listen to it every spring,

Narrated by the author, I am transported into the awakening Apalachicola through the lives of three remarkable women and one grumpy old man. A remarkable adventure.

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Fantastic Performance - Good story

Not the sort of thing I usually read/listen to. There was something about the performance that kept me listening and engaged. I loved the way the characters unfolded and deepened over time. Well crafted story telling....

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  • O.
  • 07-18-19

Please lower the sound effects decibel level

Great book and narration but the sound engineering is awful.
Not sure if anyone actually listen to the book before publish. There is an ear-damaging sound in between chapters
Can't listen to the book on headphones, it hurts.

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the perfect time

19 years ago Barbara kingsolver knew this book was a message that needed to be delivered but perhaps we weren't quite ready yet. It is also the sexiest book about the environment and insect and animal life that I have ever read! It is beautifully read as only an author can read with all of the dialect and age appropriate character voices both internal and external. Please don't miss this one

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An old favorite

I read this book several years ago but hearing Barabara Kingsolver read it was such a treat! What a great intertwining of stories and character arcs!

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Not my cup if tea

I think I read it once before - it was that unmemorable. I tried getting through it but I just didn't enjoy it. I think she is a fine writer who lacks focus at times.

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One for the bookshelf

A keeper to re-read and or to re-listen to. Wonderful characters...both human and those apart of the world of Nature.

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