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Content snapshot
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Violence
Barely any
Animal predation and hunting; minimal human violence
Language
Barely any
Mild language
Sexual Content
Some
Some sexual content in the wildlife biologist storyline
Substance Use
None
No substance use
Emotional Intensity
Some
The discomfort of humans realizing they are part of a food chain, not above it
What this book is about
Three interlocking stories unfold over a single summer in the Appalachian Mountains: a wildlife biologist monitoring a wolf family, an elderly woman in conflict with a herbicide-spraying neighbor, and a young widow mourning her husband. Kingsolver's lyrical novel is essentially a meditation on ecology—everything preys, everything is preyed upon—told through beautifully observed human and animal lives in language of rare precision and beauty.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Some sexual content
Ecological themes some readers find challenging
Reader Verification
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