The Barbara Kingsolver Cram Guide

The author of The Poisonwood Bible returns with her first novel in nine years, The Lacuna. Below, a refresher course in the richly drawn characters and tangled cultural crossings of Kingsolver's fiction.

By Jessica Winter

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The Bean Trees (1988)

The gist: Kentucky girl Taylor heads to Arizona, adopts a Cherokee girl, and falls for a (taken) immigrant.

The culture shock: Her eye-opening travels and her beloved's refugee ordeal make Taylor "feel like a foreigner" (as she puts it) in her own country.

The big question: When do you have the right to love somebody who's not yours?

From the November 2009 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine

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