Animal Dreams: A Novel

· Harper Collins
3,8
31 reviews
eBook
368
Pages
Eligible
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About this eBook

“An emotional masterpiece . . . A novel in which humor, passion, and superb prose conspire to seize a reader by the heart and by the soul.” —New York Daily News

From Barbara Kingsolver, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Demon Copperhead and recipient of the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguish Contribution to American Letters, a passionate and complex novel about love, forgiveness, and one woman’s struggle to find her place in the world

"Animals dream about the things they do in the daytime just like people do. If you want sweet dreams, you've got to live a sweet life." So says Loyd Peregrina, a handsome Apache trainman and latter-day philosopher. But when Codi Noline returns to her hometown, Loyd's advice is painfully out of her reach. Dreamless and at the end of her rope, Codi comes back to Grace, Arizona, to confront her past and face her ailing, distant father. What she finds is a town threatened by a silent environmental catastrophe, some startling clues to her own identity, and a man whose view of the world could change the course of her life.

Blending flashbacks, dreams, and Native American legends, Animal Dreams is a suspenseful love story and a moving exploration of life's largest commitments.

Ratings and reviews

3,8
31 reviews
A Google user
28 October 2011
In Animal Dreams, Codi Noline has parted from her beloved sister, Hallie, who has decided to journey to Nicaragua to lend her assistance to local farmers. An act that Codi comes to believe is heroic, in contrast to her own life and her own journey back to the place of her birth – Grace, Arizona. Struggling with memories she can no longer recall, feeling utterly adrift wherever she may be, Codi sees nothing heroic in herself, nothing worthwhile. And bereft of a sense of belonging, she arrives back home already preparing to leave yet again. Unless she can somehow find meaning, not only in where she resides and the people around her, but in herself. This is now the second novel that I have read from Barbara Kingsolver, and I am enchanted. Kingsolver is a wonderful writer. I am stunned at how well she can imbue seemingly simple characters and places and events with such unnerving, yet compelling complexity. Her prose is smooth, her language so real, yet so inspiring. A beautiful work indeed.
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bob souvorin
17 April 2015
While Kingsolver is a wonderful storyteller and a profoundly gifted wordsmith, what I admire most about her novels is her ability to infuse her narratives with a sense of place and presence. Rather than following along with the writing and "being told what is transpiring, she allows the reader to feel that she is reminding you about something REAL, something remembered, with all of the detail and nuance of actually having participated. It becomes my story, shared with someone else who was also there - a family reunion conversation.
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Carole Mcdonald
18 May 2021
No experience of this book. I have bern trying to buy it now for a month, and play store keeps givivg me error df-dferh-01 when i try to pay for it. Non of their roboyic trouble shooting works. Very sad.
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About the author

Barbara Kingsolver is the author of ten bestselling works of fiction, including the novels Unsheltered, The Bean Trees, and The Poisonwood Bible, as well as books of poetry, essays, creative nonfiction, and Coyote’s Wild Home, a children’s book co-authored with Lily Kingsolver. She also collaborated with family members on the influential Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Kingsolver’s work has been translated into more than thirty languages and has earned a devoted readership at home and abroad. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and has received numerous awards and honors including the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel, Demon Copperhead, the National Humanities Medal, and most recently, the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and its Lifetime Achievement Award. She lives with her husband on a farm in southern Appalachia.

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