title: The Poisonwood Bible
author:  Barbara Kingsolver 
description: <b>Oprah Book Club Selection, June 2000:</b> As any reader of <i>The Mosquito Coast</i> knows, men who drag their families to far-off climes in pursuit of an Idea seldom come to any good, while those familiar with <i>At Play in the Fields of the Lord</i> or <i>Kalimantaan</i> understand that the minute a missionary sets foot on the fictional stage, all hell is about to break loose. So when Barbara Kingsolver sends missionary Nathan Price along with his wife and four daughters off to Africa in <i>The Poisonwood Bible</i>, you can be sure that salvation is the one thing they're not likely to find. The year is 1959 and the place is the Belgian Congo. Nathan, a Baptist preacher, has come to spread the Word in a remote village reachable only by airplane. To say that he and his family are woefully unprepared would be an understatement: "We came from Bethlehem, Georgia, bearing Betty Crocker cake mixes into the jungle," says Leah, one of Nathan's daughters. But of course it isn't long before they discover that the tremendous humidity has rendered the mixes unusable, their clothes are unsuitable, and they've arrived in the middle of political upheaval as the Congolese seek to wrest independence from Belgium. In addition to poisonous snakes, dangerous animals, and the hostility of the villagers to Nathan's fiery take-no-prisoners brand of Christianity, there are also rebels in the jungle and the threat of war in the air. Could things get any worse?
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  > >  _For Judy, Fred and Dax_
  
  > I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to
  > say it.
  
  —Evelyn Beatrice Hall, _The Friends of Voltaire_ , 1906
  
  TUESDAY, MAY 9
  
  I
  
  THE POISONWOOD TREE
  
  CHAPTER 1
  
  THE FLASH OF LIGHT TROUBLED HIM.
  
  A glint, white or pale yellow, in the distance.
  
  From the water? From the strip of land across the peaceful turquoise bay?
  
  But here, there could b