The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

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.

Barbara Kingsolver's fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction publications have been widely translated and awarded numerous literary prizes. She founded the PEN/Bellwether Award and received the National Humanities Medal in 2000, the country's highest accolade for service to the arts. She studied and worked as a biologist before embarking on her writing career. She and her husband own and operate a farm in southern Appalachia.