Barbara Kingsolver tells us a story built on essential and exciting themes, supported by small but revealing details, more complete because they give the reader more to grab on to. Her voice in this novel is like a hymn and a celebration of nature.

Deep into southern Appalachia, farms struggle, people are poor, and nature continues its cycles. Coyotes have come back, some fear them, but Deana Wolfe, a wildlife biologist, rejoices. Eddie Bondo is a hunter who comes into Deana’s isolated life where she is working for the forest service and living in an isolated mountain cabin.

The novel starts in chapter 1 on predators saying: “Her body moved with the frankness that comes from solitary habits, but solitude is only a human presumption. Every quiet step is thunder to beetle life underfoot; every choice is a world made new for the chosen. All secrets are witnessed.”

Deanna and Eddie’s story is one of three winding paths in and around a small town.  Lusa  Landowski is a newly married city girl turned farmer's wife who becomes attached to the land and finds her education studying all types of bugs of practical relevance.  After losing her new husband to an accident, her role as an outsider is a life saver to her husband and now her new family.  Near the road are two older neighbors who fight over trees, bugs, pesticides, and the world.  Garnett loves Chestnut trees and is trying to clone a new breed. Mrs. Walker lives next door and is trying to grow a healthy garden despite Garnett’s pesticides.

As the events unfold, we are moved by how we see the countryside before us in detail.  Trees, flora, fauna, predators, and immense beauty come together, completing the adventure.

This author is a master of detail, using an original approach to bring us closer to her characters to the point that we feel we have experienced a life-changing event—an original approach to the narrative beautifully presented by Barbara Kingsolver.

Quotes

“Solitude is a human presumption. Every quiet step is thunder to beetle life underfoot, a tug of impalpable thread on the web pulling mate to mate and predator to prey, a beginning or an end. Every choice is a world made new for the chosen.” 

“How pointless life could be, what a foolish business of inventing things to love so that you could dread losing them.” 

“If you never stepped on anybody's toes, you have never been for a walk.” 

“I lost a child," she said, meeting Lusa's eyes directly. "I thought I wouldn't live through it. But you do. You learn to love the place somebody leaves behind for you.”