Acclaimed author Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Orange Prize. Set in a rural Tennessee town, Flight Behavior is the tale of a young woman who discovers a bizarre phenomenon in the mountains: a valley filled with silent fire. Compelled to share her experience and to find answers, Dellarobia Turnbow speaks openly about what she's seen- but her efforts only bring more confusion into her life. Soon, Dellarobia finds herself in conflict not only with her family and church, but with the outside world as well. Dellarobia Turnbow is a restless farm wife who gave up her own plans when she accidentally became pregnant at seventeen. Now, after a decade of domestic disharmony on a failing farm, she has settled for permanent disappointment but seeks momentary escape through an obsessive flirtation with a younger man. As she hikes up a mountain road behind her house to a secret tryst, she encounters a shocking sight: a silent, forested valley filled with what looks like a lake of fire. She can only understand it as a cautionary miracle, but it sparks a raft of other explanations from scientists, religious leaders, and the media. The bewildering emergency draws rural farmers into unexpected acquaintance with urbane journalists, opportunists, sightseers, and a striking biologist with his own stake in the outcome. As the community lines up to judge the woman and her miracle, Dellarobia confronts her family, her church, her town, and a larger world, in a flight toward truth that could undo all she has ever believed. Flight Behavior takes on one of the most contentious subjects of our time: climate change. With a deft and versatile empathy Kingsolver dissects the motives that drive denial and belief in a precarious world.
