The Bean Trees: A Novel (Paperback)

Description

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The Bean Trees is bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver’s first novel, now widely regarded as a modern classic. It is the charming, engrossing tale of rural Kentucky native Taylor Greer, who only wants to get away from her roots and avoid getting pregnant. She succeeds, but inherits a 3-year-old native-American little girl named Turtle along the way, and together, from Oklahoma to Tucson, Arizona, half-Cherokee Taylor and her charge search for a new life in the West.

Written with humor and pathos, this highly praised novel focuses on love and friendship, abandonment and belonging as Taylor, out of money and seemingly out of options, settles in dusty Tucson and begins working at Jesus Is Lord Used Tires while trying to make a life for herself and Turtle. 

The author of such bestsellers as The Lacuna, The Poinsonwood Bible, and Flight Behavior, Barbara Kingsolver has been hailed for her striking imagery and clear dialogue, and this is the novel that kicked off her remarkable literary career.

This edition includes a P.S. section with additional insights from the author, background material, suggestions for further reading, and more.

About the Author

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Barbara Kingsolver is the author of nine bestselling works of fiction, including the novels, Flight Behavior, The Lacuna, The Poisonwood Bible, Animal Dreams, and The Bean Trees, as well as books of poetry, essays, and creative nonfiction. Her work of narrative nonfiction is the enormously influential bestseller Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Kingsolver’s work has been translated into more than twenty languages and has earned literary awards and a devoted readership at home and abroad. She was awarded the National Humanities Medal, our country’s highest honor for service through the arts, as well as the prestigious Dayton Literary Peace Prize for her body of work. She lives with her family on a farm in southern Appalachia.

Praise For…

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“The work of a visionary. . . . It leaves you open-mouthed and smiling.”
— Los Angeles Times

“As clear as air. It is the southern novel taken west, its colors as translucent and polished as one of those slices of rose agate from a desert shop.”
— New York Times Book Review

"An extraordinary good novel, tough and tender and gritty and moving."
— Anne Rivers Siddons

“So wry and wise we wish it would never end....The chatty, down-home audacity of Barbara Kingsolver’s remarkable first novel hooks us on the first page.”
— San Francisco Chronicle

"A major new talent. From the very first page, Kingsolver's characters tug at the heart and soul."
— Ms.

“An astonishing literary debut....For a deep breath of fresh air, spend some time in the neighborhood of The Bean Trees.”
— Cosmopolitan

"Idealistic and exhilerating, The Bean Trees is a book that combines the most careful craft with a moral code that is loving and expansive."
— Philadelphia Inquirer

“This is the story of a lovable, resourceful ‘instant mother,’ one who speaks, acts and learns for herself, becoming an inspiration to us all.”
— Glamour

“This funny, inspiring book is a marvelous affirmation of risk-taking, commitment and everyday miracles...An overwhelming delight, as random and unexpected as real life.”
— Publishers Weekly