The Poisonwood Bible (Audiobook CD): Kingsolver, Barbara: 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 all they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it-from garden seeds to Scripture-is calamitously transformed on.
Websites
Kingsolver Site-ingYou can read an excerpt and about 100 (give or take 10) glowing reviews of The Poisonwood Bible on Kingsolver's website. Add us to that list of people offering critical acclaim.
More Fun than a Barrel of Green MambasHarperCollins, publisher of The Poisonwood Bible, has an odd definition of 'fun,' but their Fun Stuff page for Barbara Kingsolver does offer some suggestions of other authors you might enjoy.
Articles and Interviews
Miss ThingIn this Library Thing interview, Barbara Kingsolver dishes on religion, marriage, and her favorite scene in the book. (Spoiler: she doesn't have one. What's yours?)
Hearts in DarknessThe New York Times criticizes Kingsolver for 'transforming many of her characters into one-dimensional pawns in a starkly lit morality play.' Do you agree that the political spotlight shone a little too brightly, or was it lit just right?
Video
Rumble in the JungleThis classic boxing match between Muhammad Ali and grill salesman George Foreman is called out as one of many egregious excesses of Joseph Mobutu. What do you think people at the time thought about the political ramifications of the fight, if anything?
Trailing BehindThere are dozens of fan-made trailers for a non-existent Poisonwood Bible movie on YouTube. This one has some pretty neat nature shots. Jack Hanna, eat your heart out.
Audio
Talk of the Nation... the Nation of the CongoIn this 1999 radio interview on Talk of the Nation (complete with all the gaffes of live radio!), Barbara Kingsolver talks about the history of American political fiction, and where she fits in with American greats like John Steinbeck.
The Poisonwood Audio BibleWhile the reader isn't quite as passionate as Nathan Price giving a sermon, this audiobook sample is worth a listen.
Images
Mission: Impossible?This is a real church in the Congo, and it's probably about 1,000 times larger than the one the Price family had in Kilanga village.
Polly Want the Congo![Epub Epub](/uploads/1/2/6/3/126346571/908310328.jpg)
Methuselah the parrot probably looked like this: an African Grey Parrot. This is the before-he-got-eaten shot, of course.
Awkward Family PhotosThis groovy 1960s-era family in their Sunday best could totally be the Price family... after a bath and a trip to the Laundromat.
Keeps Whites WhiteOne of the many American conveniences the Prices had to do without, Clorox, is featured in this classic ad from 1964.