Havurah Shalom

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

Dellarobia, a restless farm wife who gave up her own plans when she accidentally became pregnant at seventeen, has spent a decade of domestic disharmony on a failing farm. She seeks escape through a flirtation with a younger man. While hiking up a mountain road toward a secret tryst, she encounters a shocking sight: a silent, forested valley that looks like a lake of fire. While she understands it as a cautionary miracle, a raft of other explanations is heard from scientists, religious leaders, and the media. Rural farmers come into unexpected contact with urbane journalists, opportunists, sightseers, and a striking biologist with his own stake in the outcome. The community judges Dellarobia and her miracle, while she confronts her family, her church, her town, and a larger world, in a flight toward truth that could undo all she has ever believed.

“Kingsolver has written one of the more thoughtful novels about the scientific, financial and psychological intricacies of climate change….” (Ron Charles, Washington Post)

Discussion led by Andy Beers.