The books that shaped me: Barbara Kingsolver
Welcome to The books that shaped me - a Good Housekeeping series in which authors talk us through the reads that stand out for them. This week, we're hearing from Barbara Kingsolver, who has just been named as the winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023 for her book Demon Copperhead.
Barbara is also the author of nine other novels, including The Poisonwood Bible and The Lacuna, which previously won the Women's Prize for Fiction. Demon Copperhead is also winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Prior to her writing career, Barbara studied and worked as a biologist. She lives with her husband on a farm in southern Appalachia.
What impact have books have had on you?
I taught myself to read when I was three; I remember very clearly the first day I was able to work out words on a page. And I never stopped! I grew up in a very rural place without much else to do than play in the woods and devour library books. Books were my windows to the world. Books were how I learned to be a person, a citizen of the world. Reading is also how I learned a writer. I didn’t do writing in school; I studied science, I’m a writer because I’m a reader.
I think in the beginning books made my brain bigger, they made the world bigger, they helped me understand the size of the worlds and everything in it. As I grew up and read with more sophistication, I understood how books could take me int the life of a different person and help me understand them. That magical act of creating empathy is the super-power of literature. That’s why I want to do it. I want to wield that super power!
Which childhood book has stayed with you?
I read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott when I was 8 years old. I was always reaching higher on the library shelves that I was really supposed to! Little Women is the first book I remember disappearing into; going into and them coming out and thinking wow. I stopped being me, I was Jo March.
What is your favourite book of all time?
If I really had to pick one it would be Middlemarch by George Eliot. I first read it in my 20s and I re-read it at least once every decade asnd every time I do, it’s a different book. That’s why I choose it among all other books because I think it’s a book about everything for everybody.
Which book do you wish you’d written?
I mostly try to read books I wish I’d written! When I’m dealing with a particular writing challenge I go to my shelves and I remember particular passages. I’ll read them to see how Steinbeck, for example, handles the problem. I have a whole bookcase of teachers.
Which book do you wish everyone would read?
The Overstory by Richard Powers is a book that can help you shift your perspective abolut the human time frame to the time tame of trees. So 4 or 5 hundred years. It’s a magnificent accomplishment for a writer to achieve. For the reader, I think it changes you and your understanding of your position in the world and the value of all the lives on this planet.
Which book got you through a hard time?
In hard times I turn to poetry. It’s like music for the soul. A particular favourite is Sharon Olds.
Which book lifts your spirits?
It might seem a strange choice but Pilgrim At Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard. She’s an American and write this book a long, long time ago. She spent a year just living by herself in nature in this place called Tinker Creek. It’s a book of wonder – it helps you open your eyes to the wonder of the natural world, of life.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver is the winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023.
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