Flight Behavior

By: Barbara Kingsolver

Narrated by: Barbara Kingsolver

New York Times best seller

Indie best seller

Barnes & Noble best seller

National best seller

Amazon Best Book of the Month

Indie Next Pick

Best book of the year: New York Times Notable, Washington Post Notable, Amazon Editor’s Choice, USA Today’s Top Ten (#1), St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kansas City Star

Prize-winning author: Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Dayton Literary Peace Prize (Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award), Orange Prize for Fiction

Prize-winning author: National Humanities Medal, Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Orange Prize for Fiction, Dayton Literary Peace Prize (Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award)

"Kingsolver is a gifted magician of words." (Time)

The extraordinary New York Times best-selling author of The Lacuna (winner of the Orange Prize), The Poisonwood Bible (nominated for the Pulitzer Prize), and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver returns with a truly stunning and unforgettable work.

Flight Behavior is a brilliant and suspenseful novel set in present day Appalachia; a breathtaking parable of catastrophe and denial that explores how the complexities we inevitably encounter in life lead us to believe in our particular chosen truths. Kingsolver's riveting story concerns a young wife and mother on a failing farm in rural Tennessee who experiences something she cannot explain, and how her discovery energizes various competing factions - religious leaders, climate scientists, environmentalists, politicians - trapping her in the center of the conflict and ultimately opening up her world.

Flight Behavior is arguably Kingsolver's most thrilling and accessible novel to date, and like so many other of her acclaimed works, represents contemporary American fiction at its finest.

©2012 Barbara Kingsolver (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers

Kingsolver's best yet

Would you listen to Flight Behavior again? Why?

I have already listened to sections repeatedly. Kingsolver's style is lyrical and transfixing (especially her description of butterflys/distant wild fire).
Her plot is involved and meaty, this one with a heavy dose of science. As always, Kingsolver shares a deep comitment to current environmental concerns, while detailing the limitations of the farm life and sharing insights into individuals, especially people with limited opportunities.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The heroine was truly that, a complex, tormented woman you cared about as she struggled to understand herself and her choices.

Have you listened to any of Barbara Kingsolver’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This is her best yet. It combines her lyrical style and solid science.

If you could rename Flight Behavior, what would you call it?

It's the perfect title, because the heroine is struggling against temptations to flee and humans are denying scientific reality, so flight behaviors abound.

Any additional comments?

Kingsolver's lyricism and deft insights make her one of America's finest writers.

Another homerun for Barbara Kingsolver!

If you could sum up Flight Behavior in three words, what would they be?

Surprisingly fiction, captivating.

What did you like best about this story?

Barbara Kingsolver crafts yet another amazing and compelling story which is simultaneously complex and incredibly simple. The most shocking component is her ability to craft a work of fiction within the construct of an environmental and biological reality. The growth and arc of the main character is well worth the ride! As with all of her books, I was sad to have it end.

What three words best describe Barbara Kingsolver’s performance?

Word-by-word reading...

If you could rename Flight Behavior, what would you call it?

Funny, but I couldn't keep the title in my head...I kept calling it Flight Risk.

Any additional comments?

Barbara Kingsolver has a wonderful voice, but can be painful to listen to due to her clearly innunciating each word and very slow reading speed. Her reading style was too staccatoed and too intentional with each word painfully articulated and spoken. Each word was read one at a time rather than in a fluid and flowing natural style. In one respect, I loved her reading her own book because I knew I would hear how each word was intended to be heard. However, I think a voice actor would have been much more capitivating. I found her narration so disturbing to listen to from the get-go that I almost considered not listening to it. The story was AMAZING...it's narration was not. Her voices for the different characters were limited and often even slower than the rest of the story, but her voice of Dr. Ovid Byron was fantastic! It is a story I will think about often.

I was surprised

I expected unchained liberalism and had no hope for an author reading her own work. However, she gave a very balanced and perceptive point a view to a very difficult subject. Her reading was excellent. She has a very pleasant voice didn't over dramatize her favorite parts. It was very visual and could make a great movie.

This book should be a wake up call.

What did you love best about Flight Behavior?

I have found this book riveting. Barbara Kingsolve really brings home the effects of global warming. It also demonstrates how our domestic economic policy places struggling farm families between a moral rock and a hard place.

What does Barbara Kingsolver bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I love being read to in the author's voice.

Amazing

Rarely have I witnessed an author who is as gifted a narrator as she is a writer. Truly a work of art, top to bottom, beginning to end.

Amazing writing but not narration

What did you like best about this story?

Luminous writing pulls you in from the beginning. I just wish there was a better narrator than the author.

What three words best describe Barbara Kingsolver’s voice?

She should stick to her day job as a writer and leave the narration to the professionals. I hope Audible will re-record this book with someone else. She did a poor job distinguishing between the character's voice and her accents for Ovid Byron was not convincing.

Slow to start but well worth the investment of your time

I always feel like it’s a special treat to listen to an author narrate their own book - to be able to hear the inflections in their voice, emphasis on certain syllables, and weighty pauses between words all bring what’s written on a page to life in a more meaningful way. While slow to start - I think I had to go back and read the first 3 chapter three times before I pushed through the initial sleepiness to become at first interested, then engaged with the characters - it ended up being well worth the investment of one’s time.

Queen of the descriptive metaphor, Kingsolver does such an excellent job drawing the reader into the confines of Dellarobia’s small world you don’t see the zig-zags in plot coming ... making them all the more delightful upon each encounter. Dellarobia’s metamorphosis led me to recall the Anais Nin quote: “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Fly, girl, spread your wings and FLY. Nothing will ever be the same as it once was ... thank goodness.

A Joyous, Serious Major Novel

Too often when major novelists write on topical subjects it's not their best work. Barbara Kingsolver is a great writer who has given us another great book with Flight Behavior. Perhaps nothing could match Poisonwood Bible, but why waste space on meaningless comparisons? Flight Behavior is rich in information on climate change, but you care about every character as if it were your own family. How does she do that? Kingsolver--as a superb writer of daily contemporary Appalachian hardships and as a superb narrator--has a genius for teleportation of the reader!

Poignant, timely, absorbing.

Barbara Kingsolver is one of the finest living writers, and this story of a Tennessee farm couple confronting global climate change doesn't disappoint. the characters are fully formed and relatable; culture clash is in context. the gentle satire and social messaging are never preachy , and never interfere with the story. she also narrates her work well.
An enjoyable listen.

What a pleasant surprise!

If you could sum up Flight Behavior in three words, what would they be?

Climate Change-Yikes!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Flight Behavior?

Discovery of mega-colony of Monarch Butterflies "wintering" in the wrong place.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes. Story, characters, and science drew me in.