But newspapers have a duty to truth,' Van said. Lev clucked his tongue. 'They tell the truth only as the exception. Zola wrote that the mendacity of the press could be divided into two groups: the yellow press lies every day without hesitating. But others, like the Times, speak the truth on all inconsequential occasions, so they can deceive the public with the requisite authority when it becomes necessary.' Van got up from his chair to gather the cast-off newspapers. Lev took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. 'I don't mean to offend the journalists; they aren't any different from other people. They're merely the megaphones of the other people.

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.