The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

★★★★☆

The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife (Orleanna) and four daughters (Rachel, Leah, Adah and Ruth May) of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it – from garden seeds to Scripture – is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.

Although beautifully written, this was not an easy book to read – at over 600 pages and covering many years in the lives of the Prices, it was initially hard to get into it. The pacing of the book was a challenge. While it made sense to follow the different points of view of the five women as their experiences were quite distinct from one another, it was difficult differentiating between them at times, especially when listening to the audiobook.

However, it is worth powering through the slower sections as the pace does pick up (perhaps a little too much) in the second half, and we see where the story takes the five women. The book did lack more of the history of the Congo – we get to see some key moments through the eyes of the Prices, but it would have benefitted from more. Still, the focus of the story was on the domestic tragedy that followed Nathan’s obsession with his mission and for this Kingsolver delivered immensely.