Review: Prodigal Summer

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoy Barbara Kingsolver’s fiction. Her writing is of quality. This book takes place during one momentous summer in (fictional) Zebulon County, which is located in the Appalachian region. There are three separate stories in this book. One can almost think of them as three independent stories, although they do have a connection, as Zebulon is a small county and everyone knows everyone.

There is a strong focus on the land, with predators and small bugs. One story-line has a middle-aged woman living in a cabin working for the forest service and trying to protect the predators, if possible. Another story is about two older people with differing views on using pesticides. The last is a young widow, newly married too, less than a year. Lusa has studied bugs extensively, but now on the in-law’s family farm she’s trying to figure out how to fit in this family and how to make the farm work.

I’ve had this book for a couple of decades, and not sure why I always passed up reading it until now. Perhaps I thought is was just of short stories, which the book really isn’t. In any case, glad I finally got to reading it.


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