Flight Behaviour
Author of Demon Copperhead, Winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction
-
-
3.8 • 37 Ratings
-
-
- £6.49
-
- £6.49
Publisher Description
**NOW INCLUDING THE FIRST CHAPTER OF DEMON COPPERHEAD**
TWICE WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION
THE MULTI-MILLION COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR
'Lyrical, socially engaged and passionate.' Sunday Times
'There are many moments of lightness ... and of great beauty, too.' Independent
'A compelling plot with lyrical passages and flashes of humour.' Sunday Telegraph
A captivating, topical and deeply human story touching on class, poverty and climate change by the award-winning, global bestselling author of Demon Copperhead and The Lacuna
"The flames now appeared to lift from individual treetops in showers of orange sparks, exploding the way a pine log does in a campfire when it is poked. The sparks spiralled upward in swirls like funnel clouds. Twisters of brightness against grey sky."
On the Appalachian Mountains above her home, a young mother discovers a beautiful and terrible marvel of nature: the monarch butterflies have not migrated south for the winter this year. Is this a miraculous message from God, or a spectacular sign of climate change. Entomology expert, Ovid Byron, certainly believes it is the latter. He ropes in Dellarobia to help him decode the mystery of the monarch butterflies.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Dellarobia Turnbow is on the cusp of a life-altering event. Trapped in a lusterless marriage on a failing Appalachian farm, she’s on her way to an adulterous rendezvous when she witnesses a miracle: a valley aglow with silent orange flame. The apparition turns out to be a displaced migration of butterflies, but their presence—and the social, ecological and personal questions it poses—is at the glowing center of Flight Behaviour. Those who know Kingsolver will recognise her lush details and subtle environmental advocacy. Those new to her will be introduced through a narrative of immense emotional and topical resonance.
Customer Reviews
Too long and meandering
Having read Poisonwood and Bean Trees with total rapture and devotion, I was set to love Flight Behaviour and didn't hesitate to download it. Unlike the other books however, Flight Behaviour dragged and seemed to lose the thread repeatedly. Mediations on motherhood and the lot of the low-income family threatened to override the plot & thrust of the narrative sometimes. It did succeed in teaching me about the monarch butterfly (v interesting from a science/biology perspective), and Barbara Kingsolver's witty protagonist had me sympathising a good deal with her marital frustrations, but the ambiguous relationship with the utterly implausible Ovid Byron was ridiculous and the character himself wishful thinking. Climate change is an important issue that should be tackled through all channels possible, including fiction, but this the book often read like a ruse to lecture people about climate change instead of a story in it's own right. I often felt that the book was too long and I itched to finish it and move onto the next novel. The heroine of FB does not have the same inevitable appeal of Bean Trees' protagonist and nor does it produce the same wrenching sense of horror and awe as I got from reading The Poisonwood Bible. Shame as I thought I'd found a new literary genius to follow everywhere.
Beautiful!
I hope they make a film out if this book.