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Cambridge University Library

 

TUESDAY 28 JANUARY 2025

7PM to 8PM

Open to all. Hosted online using Zoom Meetings. 

TICKETS: Free, booking required.

ACCESSIBILITY: Live subtitles are available using Zoom's Live Transcript function.

Register for free here


The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

An international bestseller, The Poisonwood Bible charts the Price family’s 1959 move from Georgia to the Congo to live as missionaries. But Nathan, an evangelical Baptist, his wife and four daughters struggle to adapt to life on African soil, leading to their tragic downfall. Spanning three decades, this challenging epic weaves together questions of race, religion, politics and identity.

We'll be discussing this Pulitzer Prize finalist with journalist, broadcaster and author Chine McDonald.

To aide the conversation, we have prepared three 'thinking points' to consider when reading The Poisonwood Bible:

1. ‘Everything you’re sure is right can be wrong in another place.’ What warnings about the assumption of cultural and racial supremacy do we read in the pages of the book?

2. In the main, the book is told from the perspective of the Price family women. In what ways does this impact what you took from the story?

3. In what ways does the title reflect the message and themes of the book?


The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is available in paperback, hardback, audio and ebook formats, borrowable from public libraries or to purchase. To see what printed and digital copies are available from Cambridge University Libraries (borrowable by University staff and students), search iDiscover.


About The Really Popular Book Club

The Really Popular Book Club is Cambridge University Libraries' book group. Everyone is welcome to come and discuss a really popular book with the group, library staff, and an expert on the novel. Hosted on Zoom, the book club is completely free and open to everyone, people attend from all over the world. The Really Popular Book Club celebrates the huge range of books at Cambridge University Library. We have more than 8 million books and as a legal deposit library we keep a copy of every book published in the UK, and have done since 1710.

If you haven't attended one of our book club events before, you can find more information at www.lib.cam.ac.uk/bookclub