The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel

The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel

by Barbara Kingsolver

4.5 (20,533)

4.5 stars from 20,533 reviews. One of the highest rated Historical Fiction books we track.


$1.99KU88% off peak

Last checked: Jun 6, 2026

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Fans of these authors will like this...

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Fans of these books will like this...

  • Americanah
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Perfect for you if...

  • You want literary fiction that grapples seriously with colonialism, faith, and moral complicity without preaching.
  • You're drawn to multi-perspective narratives where each narrator's voice reveals something different about the same events.
  • You appreciate ambitious historical epics that span decades and follow families through radical transformation.

Maybe not for you if...

  • You prefer plot-driven stories with clear heroes and villains rather than morally ambiguous characters wrestling with their own culpability.
  • You're looking for lighter reads. This book is dense, demanding, and emotionally exhausting.
  • You want straightforward narratives. Four daughters plus the mother each tell the story differently, and that layering takes patience.

About this book

The Poisonwood Bible follows the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, an evangelical Baptist missionary who takes his family to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They arrive believing they have everything needed from home, but discover that their possessions and beliefs are fundamentally transformed by African soil. The novel unfolds against the Congo's fight for independence from Belgium, including the murder of its first elected prime minister and a CIA coup. Orleanna Price reconstructs her husband's role in Western involvement in Africa, while grappling with her own losses and questions of culpability. The story is also told by their four daughters—Rachel, twins Leah and Adah, and five-year-old Ruth May—who arrive with racial preconceptions formed in 1950s Georgia and are marked in different ways by their father's mission and by Africa itself. Spanning three decades, the novel traces one family's tragic undoing and reconstruction, exploring moral risk and personal responsibility as each daughter finds her own path.

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Price History

Kindle price over time. Green zones = periods when the book was free.

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Free$8.00$15.99Mar '20May '22Jul '23Jun '26
$1.99$15.99

Currently on sale at $1.99 — 88% off peak. Price has dropped 7 times over the last 6 years. Goes on sale roughly every 371 days. Typically stays discounted for 14 days.

Sales Rank

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#551#23,284#46,016Apr '18May '22Mar '24May '26

Currently #1,033 in the Kindle store — a top-10K bestseller. Climbing the charts — 36% improvement recently.

Rating & Reviews

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4.0★4.5★5.0★May '23Nov '23Oct '24May '26RatingReviews

Currently 4.5★ from 20,533 reviews

Gaining approximately 183 new reviews per month. Reader interest is accelerating. Rating has remained stable at 4.5 over the tracking period.

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Free$8.00$15.99Mar '20May '22Jul '23Jun '26PredictedJun '26

Actual Predicted

This book is currently discounted at $1.99. It typically returns to around $15.99.

Prices shown in USD from Amazon US. We continuously pull new data to improve tracking. If dates look old, it usually means there has been no significant change since the last data point.

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Barbara Kingsolver

1 book on Vagrant Press

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