PRODIGAL SUMMER by BARBARA KINGSOLVER

The setting of the book in Appalachia was very new to me. Even the name Appalachia does not sound quite American to my ears! Chapter by chapter we deal with three different people - all very different to each other connected in some way and so very different in other ways.

A love story involving Deanna - set in her ways, intent on one purpose of saving the coyote (which she knows will not go down well with the rest of society) and Eddie so many years her junior who awakens feelings in her which she thought was long forgotton in her and then we have lovely neighbours of Garnett and Nannie - both highly individualistic, eccentric and lonely. Four complex people coming together in a very closed community - sparks have to fly and fly they do.

The book is a lot about nature, and the threat to our environment due to man's ignorance or deliberate negligence of it. A lot of it I would say is due to ignorance where a wild animal is looked at as a threat and therefore should be eliminated - not realizing that nature has its own plan and we humans stepping in and doing the elimination is not how Nature actually planned things to happen. It opened my eyes to the fact that there is a method for predators,  for forest fires and for things that we may not understand at first.

This is a storyteller's book and if you enjoy a slow unravelling this is for you.

Going out of Colombo to Rozella (to the cool) for an overnight visit. We are having a wedding party at our guest house in Ginigathhena - our first - and I am so looking forward to this event.