In Kilanga, people knew nothing of things they might have had- A Frigidaire? a washer-dryer combination? Really, they'd sooner imagine a tree that could pull up it's feet and go bake bread. It didn't occur to them to feel sorry for themselves.

Although the setting of the novel is somewhat similar to Kingsolver's own childhood trip to the then Republic of Congo the novel is not autobiographical. Her major non-fiction works include her 1990 publication Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983 and 2007's Animal Vegetable Miracle a description of eating locally. "


Local eating experiment
Starting in April 2005 Kingsolver and her family spent a year making every effort to eat food produced as locally as possible.

In 2000 Kingsolver establiBarbara Kingsolverd the Bellwether Prize to support "literature of social change. Kingsolver has received numerous awards including the Dayton Literary Peace Prize's Richard C. Each of her books publiBarbara Kingsolverd since 1993 has been on the New York Times Best Seller list.