Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

At long last, the bestselling author of Small Miracles and The Poisonwood Bible returns with the wise and compelling true story of her family’s adventure to reclaim the food they eat

America has long been a nation of farmers. But within the past several decades, our food supply has become dependent on transportation that burns fossil fuels and on increasingly fewer varieties of vegetables and animals. In a single generation, most Americans have lost their knowledge of agriculture and the natural processes that are a part of our food chain. But while food is cheap we pay for it in other ways, including shorter life spans for our children, argues Barbara Kingsolver.

Determined to integrate their food choices with their family values, Kingsolver and her family moved from suburban Arizona to a rural Appalachia, and embarked on an adventure of realigning their lives with the food chain. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle follows them through the first year of their experiment.

Told in the compelling voices of the Kingsolver family, it recalls their experiences, and introduces other passionate, committed citizens who are trying to turn the tide in their communities, from organic farmers to members of the Slow Food movement who are doing their best to protect our foods against extinction and return us to a way of life that is better for our health, our wallets, and our environment.

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."

“Classy and disarming, substantive and entertaining, earnest and funny....Kingsolver takes the genre to a new literary level.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Kingsolver elegantly chronicles a year of back-to-the-land living…Readers...will take heart and inspiration here.” - Kirkus Reviews

“Faithful, funny, and thought-provoking...Readers-whether vegetarian or carnivore-will not go hungry, literally or literarily.” - BookPage

“Kingsolver beautifully describes this experience.” - More Magazine

“Kingsolver dresses down the American food complex…These down-on-the-farm sections are inspiring and…compelling.” - Outside magazine

“ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE is a chronicle of food feats…I’m inclined to agree with most points Kingsolver makes.” - Chicago Sun-Times

“Charming . . . Literary magic . . . If you love the narrative voice of Barbara Kingsolver, you will be thrilled.” - Houston Chronicle

“Delectable . . . steeped in elegant prose and seasoned with smart morsels about the food industry.” - Chicago Tribune

“Charming, zestful, funny and poetic…a serious book about important problems.” - Washington Post Book World

“[Kingsolver is] a master storyteller, and even those who’ve heard this tale before will be captivated.” - Daily News

“[This] is a book that, without being preachy, makes a solid case for eating locally instead of globally.” - Richmond Times-Dispatch

“Highly digestible…Engaging.” - Ellen Goodman, Boston Globe

“Other notable writers have addressed this topic, but Kingsolver claims it as her own....Self-deprecating instead of self-righteous.” - Charlotte Observer

“Engaging…Absorbing…Lovely food writing…[Kingsolver] succeeds at adopting the warm tone of a confiding friend.” - Corby Kummer, New York Times Book Review

“Charming...and persuasive...Each season-and chapter-unfolds with a natural rhythm and mouth-watering appeal.” - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Anyone who read and appreciated THE OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA by Michael Pollan will want to read Barbara Kingsolver’s book.” - Roanoke Times

“A lovely book. ” - Los Angeles Times

“A profound, graceful, and literary work . . . Timeless. . . . It can change who you are.” - Rick Bass, Boston Globe

“I defy anyone to read this book and walk away from it without gaining at least the desire to change.” - Bookreporter.com

“Kingsolver carries us along in her distinct and breezy prose.” - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Homespun, unassuming, informed, positive, inspiring. . . . Unstinting in its concerns about this imperiled planet.” - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“Loaded with terrific information about everything from growth hormones to farm subsidies.” - Entertainment Weekly

“If you...buy...one book this summer, make it this one...As satisfying and complete as a down home supper.” - Tucson Citizen

“[Written] with passion and hope…This novelist paints a compelling big picture-broad and ambitious, with nary an extraneous stroke.” - Rocky Mountain News

“Kingsolver, who writes evocatively about our connection to place, does so here with characteristic glowing prose. She provides the rapture.” - Miami Herald

“If you’re interested in learning more about healthful eating, you’ll want to read…ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE.” - Charlotte Observer

“Folksy and smart. . . . Cogent and illuminating . . . this book captures the pulse of the farm and the deep gratification it provides.” - Janet Maslin, New York Times

“Wry, insightful and inspiring to anyone who yearns to work with the earth.” - Chicago Tribune (on the audiobook)

“Kingsolver…adds enough texture and zest to stir wistful yearnings in all of us...[A] vicarious taste of domesticity.” - Christian Science Monitor

“A terrific effort. The delight for readers…is the chance to experience the rediscovery of community through food.” - The Oregonian (Portland)

“Every bit as transporting as-and more ecologically relevant than-any “Year In Provence”-style escapism...Earthy...informative....[and] englightened.” - Washington Post

“Provocative . . . Kingsolver . . . evokes the sheer joy of producing one’s own food.” - People

“An impassioned, sensual, smart and witty narrative…Kinsolver is a master at leavening a serious message with humor.” - St. Petersburg Times

“Full…of zest and sometimes ribald humor… Reading this book will make you hungry.” - Raleigh News & Observer

“Lessons learned in sustainability are worth feasting on-and taking to heart.” - Self

“ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE makes an important contribution to the chorus of voices calling for change.”” - Chicago Tribune

“Equal parts folk wisdom and political activism . . . This family effort instructs as much as it entertains.” - St. Louis Post-Dispatch