The Queen's Reading Room

The Poisonwood Bible

By Barbara Kingsolver

Recommended By Miranda Cowley Heller & Bonnie Garmus

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Featured in: Season 13

Publish Date: 1998

The story of a family’s tragic undoing and efforts to rebuild what’s been lost, The Poisonwood Bible is an epic novel full of suspense. Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist, decides to take his wife, four daughters and mission to Belgian Congo. Equipped with everything they believe they will need to settle in the new country, they will soon discover that all of it is forever transformed on African soil.

Explore The Poisonwood Bible

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Map of the Congo, 1950s
Courtesy of the author
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King Leopold II of Belgium
Colonial History
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First Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
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On the Research Process
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On Writing About Troubled Times
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Bible Errata
Inspiration for The Poisonwood Bible
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Barbara Kingsolver
On the Courage to Tell This Story
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Barbara Kingsolver
From The Poisonwood Bible

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