The Poisonwood Bible (2005)

By Barbara Kingsolver
This is one of the best books I have read for some time; I found it quite unputdownable. I nearly chucked at sickie on the Monday after I started reading it so I could stay home and finish it. (Bosses, take note: I did not chuck a sickie).

This book tells the story of a family from southern USA who move to a small village in the Congo (now Zaire) in 1959 to convert the Congolese to Christianity. The family consists of Dad (Nathan Price), Mum (Orleanna Price) and four girls (Rachel, Leah, Adah and Ruth May). On arrival, the family proceeds to slowly unravel. The father is a evangelical Baptist preacher, truly astonishing for his incapacity for empathy or to recognise the strain his choices placed on his wife and children. Ooh, I really didn’t like him – neither did anyone else in the book, much.

The story is told from the perspective of the four girls and occasionally through Orleanna’s eyes. Alternately fascinating and dreadful, the book shows how the Congo slowly begins to shape the girls’ thoughts (adaptability – or the lack of it – is an amazing thing), and how their experiences there make a return to “normal” life impossible. Nathan Price’s original plan was to stay there for a year; some of the characters never return to the US.

Quick soapbox: This book also triggered a chip I have on my shoulder about Europeans – I reckon they get let off really lightly when it comes to colonial crimes against humanity. There is no question that the English committed many crimes in their bid to conquer the world, or whatever they were doing, but so did the French, the Portuguese, the Spanish and (in this case) the Belgians – we never seem to hear about their histories so much. But then, maybe that’s because we live in a country colonised by the English.

Rating: 10 out of 10
This is a book that stays with you for some time.