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    Pigs in Heaven
    Pigs in Heaven
    Pigs in Heaven
    Audiobook (abridged)2 hours

    Pigs in Heaven

    Written by Barbara Kingsolver

    Narrated by Barbara Kingsolver

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    ""A novel full of miracles.”  — Newsweek

    “Breathtaking. . . unforgettable. . . . This profound, funny, bighearted novel, in which people actually find love and kinship in surprising places, is also heavenly. . . . A rare feat and a triumph.” — Cosmopolitan

    In Pigs in Heaven, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Barbara Kingsolver, recipient of the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguish Contribution to American Letters, picks up where her modern classic The Bean Trees left off and continues the tale of Turtle and Taylor Greer, a Native American girl and her adoptive mother who have settled in Tucson, Arizona, as they both try to overcome their difficult pasts.

    When six-year-old Turtle Greer witnesses a freak accident at the Hoover Dam, her insistence on what she has seen and her mother's belief in her lead to a man's dramatic rescue. But Turtle's moment of celebrity draws her into a conflict of historic proportions. The crisis quickly envelops not only Turtle and her mother, Taylor, but everyone else who touches their lives in a complex web connecting their future with their past.

    Pigs in Heaven travels the roads from rural Kentucky and the urban Southwest to Heaven, Oklahoma, and the Cherokee Nation as it draws the reader into a world of heartbreak and redeeming love, testing the boundaries of family and the many separate truths about the ties that bind.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateNov 8, 2005
    ISBN9780060894573
    Pigs in Heaven
    Author

    Barbara Kingsolver

    Barbara Kingsolver is the author of ten bestselling works of fiction, including the novels Unsheltered, The Bean Trees, and The Poisonwood Bible, as well as books of poetry, essays, creative nonfiction, and Coyote’s Wild Home, a children’s book co-authored with Lily Kingsolver. She also collaborated with family members on the influential Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Kingsolver’s work has been translated into more than thirty languages and has earned a devoted readership at home and abroad. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and has received numerous awards and honors including the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel, Demon Copperhead, the National Humanities Medal, and most recently, the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and its Lifetime Achievement Award. She lives with her husband on a farm in southern Appalachia.

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    Reviews for Pigs in Heaven

    4.5/5

    124 ratings38 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to be a delightful and heart-touching tale that beautifully encapsulates centuries of history and drama in the United States. The characters have depth and the story explores family bonds and the Cherokee culture. While some found it predictable and not their favorite of the author's work, others appreciated the short length and resolution. Overall, this book is recommended for those who enjoy a good story without excessive length.

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Loved this book! Very sweet and the narrator is a great story teller! Thank you writer and narrator!
    • 3/5
      Meh. A bit too predictable for my taste. Not my favorite of her work.
    • 4/5
      I very much enjoyed this book. There is a strong cultural dynamic, as well as the theme of motherhood and fear of loss. The characters are mostly compelling and, while the resolution is all a bit too neat, the story effectively drew me in throughout. Definitely one of the best things I've read this year, though, to be fair, the year thus far has been pretty well occupied by assigned readings.
    • 5/5
      ok, I'm rereading this now. Bean Trees and this one, the books I fell in love with in High School. I had it "reviewed" on here before, but think I was on crack or something, cause it only had 2 stars...yeah, it's clearly not that, not then and not now.Kingsolvers voice for me is what made the two mentioned books so involving for me. The characters were real and haunting, and I've spent years thinking about the characters, though not obsessively so, because that would be crazy, but in the way that I compare books. For years after reading Bean Trees, and the better Pigs in Heaven, I searched in vain for authors that had Kingsolvers way with pen. Alas it was to no avail. Not even Kingsolver compared with her various other stories. Of course, now I've found some I love and return to again and again. The joys of obsessive reading.
    • 5/5
      The author is a wonderful storyteller. The stomp dance scene came alive for me.
    • 4/5
      Taylor's love for Turtle, her adopted daughter, is palpable in this tale of twists of fate. After being handed this bruised and abused little girl, Taylor and Turtle make a family for themselves. Out of the blue, Annawake Fourkiller shows up at Taylor's doorstep, after seeing the two on the Oprah show. Annawake informs Taylor that Turtle was illegally adopted and must now be returned to her Cherokee tribe. As only Kingsolver can, this story twists and turns until all its characters are discovered, firmly linked together. This is characteristic of the interconnectedness of nature, which is the backdrop for this wonderful tale. Kingsolver is a brilliant writer, who crafts stories with rich characters and enveloping emotions. I'm so glad I've finally read this book.
    • 4/5
      Even though it's not one of my favorites of BK, it more than satisfied me by continuing the saga of Taylor Greer and company (from The Bean Trees). Plus, you have to love the final scene.
    • 5/5
      Re-reading this after many years - I had forgotten how utterly lovely it was. Magical and uplifting. Barbara Kingsolver is endlessly wonderful....
    • 4/5
      While it had the same likable characters returning from the Bean Trees and was definitely an enjoyable read, this book fell a little short when it came to capturing the magic its predecessor had.
    • 5/5
      Brilliant, brilliant book. It starts off with a startling array of niceness - nice family, nice lifestyle, a miasma of likeability. The boyfriend in particular is way too good to be true (he actually invites his girlfriend's mother to come and live with them, and appears to welcome the prospect. Blokes like that don't exist outside of fiction). The reason for all this likeability becomes clear when it emerges that this book centres around a tug-of-love situation, and ensures that we don't know which side to sympathise with.Some skilfuly dropped clues ensure that the reader is always one step ahead of the characters and anticipating the next step, and good pacing ensures that it is a while before they catch up, so the suspense is ensured. Like all the other books I have read by this author, the research is thorough without weighing down the plot, and it is compelling, humorous and informative.I had no idea that this was part of a series, but upon finishing it I discovered 'The Bean Trees' in a second hand shop and found out that it was a prequel to this one, so guess what I read next.
    • 3/5
      I actually liked this book better than the first, The Bean Trees. Which was surprising because before I started it my mom had told me she didn't like the sequel as much as the original. Still, it certainly wasn't my favorite Kingsolver. I much prefer The Poisonwood Bible.
    • 4/5
      This is the sequel to the Bean Trees. Turtle, as a result of a rescue publicized on national TV, is identified as the lost child of a Cherokee band. (Taylor had adopted Turtle, who had been thrust at her by the mother at a truck stop, who then disappeared). The fudged adoption comes to light and the novel focuses on the competing claims as to where Turle belongs. On the one side isTaylor, the white mother, who did not seek to scoop a Native child, but was herself very young and inexperienced when the child was given to her. Taylor has been an exemplary mother and there is a strong and healthy bond between her and Turtle. On the other side is the Cherokee band, whose lawyer lays out the multitude of reasons why Turtle belongs with her people. Kingsolver does an excellent job in showing the validity of the claims of both sides. But the child cannot be sawed into half. The novel is the story of the conflict and its resolution, which turned out to be too convenient and facile -- creating an "everybody wins" scenario. This is the one aspect of this book I dislike. Other than that, I adore Kingsolver's writing and these characters.I read this book a couple of years before I moved to Manitoba, with its large Indigenous population and its history of systematically taking Indigenous kids away from their parents. Since I am a social work educator, this is an important issue for me to grasp and I found that Kingsolver's novel helped me to gain some insight into why it is so important for these children to remain in their communities.
    • 4/5
      I am always struck by how good Kingsolver is when I start one of her books. I don't know why I forget this in between. In all of Kingsolver's books that I have read she does a great job depicting women and women's community (something I am often impatient with but which rings absolutely true for me in her books), and in Pigs in Heaven the juggling of multiple character points of view and of multiple ways of seeing the world--and the way the reader is made to empathize with all of them--is particularly well done.
    • 4/5
      Ahh, Barbara Kingsolver. Like a cup of tea or a warm bath, you can just swim in her language and story.
    • 5/5
      I’m not impartial. I’ve loved everything I’ve ever read by Barbara Kingsolver. This one fascinated me in part because of it’s strong women characters and part due to the Cherokee culture I learned. The issue of what would happen to Turtle was a conundrum right up to the last few sentences. Then suddenly, resolution, and the short book ended. I do like a good story that doesn’t go on for hundreds of pages or dozens of hours. Recommended.
    • 2/5
      This is a story about the adoption rights of American Indians. The characters and theme of the story is interesting but the content of the discussion among characters is distracting and boring. The author attempts to make it humorous but I consider much of it sad, unfortunate, and stupid. The ending is predictable. There is a vague attempt to teach about American Indian culture but it is weak and incomplete. I can not recommend this book as it is not worth reading.
    • 5/5
      A bit disappointing. I enjoyed The Bean Trees more.
    • 4/5
      I liked this book. I felt that it was political spin off from the Bean Trees. Taylor and Turtle explore moral and legal issues. Just like the first book Pigs in Heaven really brought the characters to life and was interesting. I would recomend this book.
    • 5/5
      The continuing story of Taylor and Turtle involves new and previously known characters. If you were missing them, you get to know them better, as well as learn more about the connection between Taylor and Turtle.
    • 5/5
      In the first book of this short series, [The Bean Trees], Taylor Green has an abused Indian toddler unexpectedly thrust into her arms from the back of a car. It was a great story of making a family from those who don't share your blood, but I was constantly thinking “Wait a minute – adoptions don't happen this way – no way, no how.”In this sequel the child called Turtle, who is still only minimally verbal, insists that she has seen a man fall into a dangerous place. Taylor believes her, and persists with unbelieving authorities until she finally gets someone to listen. The man is rescued. The resultant publicity brings Turtle to national acclaim, including tribal social workers.It becomes a beautiful story of the conflict when an abused and neglected child, coming out of her shell and attached to her adoptive white Mom, is claimed by her tribe and members of her extended family.The characters are all well realized. We see the backstory and pain of individual tribal family members and the whole of a nation whose children were removed from them. How can there be any winners in this situation? Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Very nice character study; clever story/settings & nice background descriptions of American Indian adoption laws, Thoroughly enjoyable read. One of her best!
    • 5/5
      Love Kingsolver!
    • 4/5
      I found this book fun to read with a host of memorable, entertaining characters, most of of whom I liked. It dealt with a difficult dilemma which was perhaps too neatly solved but it made me happy.
    • 3/5
      This is the sequel to [The Bean Trees]. It's really not absolutely necessary to read the two books in order, but it is recommended. This is more contrived, I think ... good intentions always triumph over bad reality. But Kingsolver is a talented writer and a good story-teller.
    • 3/5
      While I didn't like this book as much as I enjoyed its prequel ('The Bean Trees'), it was nice to continue with the story of Turtle and learn a bit more about her. She gets a lot more interesting as a character in this book. I also found how I felt about the legal and emotional struggle between Turtle's adopted mother and her tribe very interesting.
    • 4/5
      Another fine Kingsolver story. I initially avoided reading her books, despite recommendations from people I kind-of knew! The reason I avoided them was that they sounded too heavily laden with socio-political messages, and I don't read fiction to be preached at. However, what I've found is that this author is remarkably skillful in creating characters and situations with which I could identify and become emotionally involved, despite their apparent distance from my own situation. This story is a classic example. The obvious target audience groups are mothers and native americans, and to neither of which do I belong. Kingsolver sets up a story of Cherokee versus mother, but she does it in such a way that this reader felt equally drawn to both sides. The justice of both the mother's position and the Indian's position is made evident and we can't see how this can resolve satisfactorily. Of course the conclusion doesn't have to be completely satisfactory, because life isn't like that, but nonetheless, Kingsolver's ultimate message is that love does have the power to take us beyond motherhood or genetic ancestry. Yes, the last couple of chapters did move me to tears, but I'm that sort of person I guess. It definitely helped, but wasn't essential, to read "The Bean Trees" first. This was especially true because it set up the (geographic) landscape for me, a non-American. That landscape (both urban and rural) and the way it affects the people's lives is a major issue in these books, I think.
    • 2/5
      A bit predictable, but good characters.
    • 5/5
      The sequel to the Bean Trees continues the story of Taylor and Turtle, but this book feels richer, more layered. It looks closely at a difficult issue still important in America today: Should we look the other way at cross-cultural adoption if the child will be cared for and loved? Does culture and etnicity matter more than love?
    • 4/5
      The Turtle books are some of the sweetest. They pull at your heart strings and really draw you in. Kingsolver has a way with different cultures and sheding light on the customs and people so that even the simplist of people can understand what both sides are trying to bring to the table.
    • 4/5
      Better than I expected, but a light read chalk FULL of symbols and motifs. A good book for high school level students for that reason. About Taylor and her adopted daughter Turtle (a Cherokee) and Alice, Taylor's mother, and their search for meaningful family and connections. Good introduction to Cherokee traditions and history, too (though somewhat idealized). A quick but enjoyable read. Jax is my favourite character and I was disappointed he's not in the end of the book.