Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
2007
Winner of the James Beard Award
Winner of the Library of Virginia Nonfiction Prize
Winner of the Southern Book Prize
Winner of the Indies Choice Book Award
Bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver returns with her first nonfiction narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat.
“As the U.S. population made an unprecedented mad dash for the Sun Belt, one carload of us paddled against the tide, heading for the Promised Land where water falls from the sky and green stuff grows all around. We were about to begin the adventure of realigning our lives with our food chain.”
“Naturally, our first stop was to buy junk food and fossil fuel. . . .”
Hang on for the ride: With characteristic poetry and pluck, Barbara Kingsolver and her family sweep readers along on their journey away from the industrial-food pipeline to a rural life in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Their good-humored search yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex life and overly zealous zucchini plants, en route to a food culture that’s better for the neighborhood and also better on the table. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.
“This is the story of a year in which we made every attempt to feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew . . . and of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air.”
“Charming, zestful, funny and poetic…This is a serious book about important problems…The authors of ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE…add three powerful voices…to the swelling chorus of concern about the food we grow, buy and eat.” - Washington Post Book World
“Cogent and illuminating...There are many ways for a writer to tell you to eat your vegetables…Barbara Kingsolver’s way is both folksy and smart...Without sentimentality, this book captures the pulse of the farm and the deep gratification it provides, as well as the intrinsic humor of the situation.” - Janet Maslin, New York Times
“Charming...Literary magic...If you love the narrative voice of Barbara Kingsolver, you will be thrilled by her newest book...ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE is a fervent reminder of truths we blithely ignore.” - Houston Chronicle
“A hybrid book…part memoir…part call to action, part education, part recipe collection…ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE makes an important contribution to the chorus of voices calling for change.” - Chicago Tribune
“It’s a lovely book. One wants with all one’s heart to sit with [Kingsolver] on the porch at the end of the day and shell peas.” - Los Angeles Times
“A profound, graceful, and literary work of philosophy and economics, well tempered for our times, and yet timeless….It will change the way you enter a grocery store, will change the way you look at the food you put into your body. Which is to say, It can change who you are.” - Boston Globe