Paveł piotrowicz: The “Bible of the poisonous trees” appeared in 1998, but due to the event it describes, it seems more current today.
Barbara Kingsalver: I think so. This is primarily a book about arrogance. About the dangerous assumption of what is good for me. The novel does not talk about religion, or does not analyze the post -colonial mood of the West, but both of these are very clear here.
As a writer, I think a lot about the world, the random of strength. I feel her every year. That is why I write about the problems of ordinary people. They are women, children, from different races, they will never be defined as heroes, but I see them heroically based on courage and immunity.
The story begins in the late 1950s. Pastor Nathan’s price moves from the states with his family. The novel is written by his wife’s opportunities and four daughters.
In many ways I created five books here. I spent more than a year, imagined specific scenes and improved the voices of these five characters so that everyone is clear. I wrote with their eyes and ears. It was like adjusting the tool. I wanted to feel that the reader was so firmly embedded in every mind, and even by opening any direction, it was immediately known who told the story at the time.
You lived in the Congo for a while during your childhood.
Yes, but the Bible of the “Poison Tree” is not my story. Fortunately I did not grow in the family of religious fanatics. My father grew up in poverty and thanked him for being a doctor. He worked in East Kentucky, but he paid his debt to the world and took care of the people who needed the poor countries. For the Congo, he treated leprosy, smallpox and malaria, so I saw the best reasons. This was already after the time described in the book. This place was always within me. When I learned from the story of the atrocities first performed by the Belgians, then the Americans, thanks to the CIA, I was angry and scared. I felt the shame. So it is very difficult for me to write this book. I was twenty years old.
As the editor of the “Bible of the Poison Tree”, you saw you among the final competitors of the literary bullet, and he eventually kept the “Monster Copperhead” novel two years ago. What did you feel then?
I am writing for readers, not for gifts. The reward for me is that my books are very popular and are read by millions. This allows me to enjoy writing for many years and live in my own way. The most important to me is to speak with the world. Each gift, though good, indicates that many people have decided in a room. Of course, I am very grateful to the readers. The “Bible of the Poisoning Tree” became a great best seller, and a year later, the wonderful Opra chose her for her book club. Similarly, I do not expect the “Demon Copperhead” to become such a great universal feeling. It was a novel I wrote on behalf of the people of the village, and was completely avoided in the popular culture created by residents in large cities.
The general purpose of your novels is to travel away from civilization, learn about other cultures and find meaning in them.
I am very interested in cultural differences. This is the result of an unusual childhood, I think apartments in many places. From the very beginning I understood that there are many different ways to be right. Being good and beautiful in one place will be bad in another place. From childhood, I can see in the opposite sides of the people who are very firmly attributed to my reasons, and I can understand their arguments. Good literature does it, presenting different perspectives and colliding with you.
Are you more interested in asking questions as a writer or finding answers?
I think literature is from asking questions. Everywhere we are surrounded by ads, politics and religious slogans, they say what to think and what to do. Literature is one of some ways to question what you think.
So what is the most important question you want to find the answer?
How to survive in the next four years in my country. We feel that we are abandoned. Half of us did not vote for Trump, and did not want to engage in the terrible isolation world of white supremacy, racism and sex. We are afraid. Now the only words that give me strength come from the song: “Every storm ends the rain.”
Although you are a novelist, a biology of profession, you have previously read a classic piano game. I am looking for connections.
You can’t find. (Laughter). I grew up in the countryside and was crazy in the woods with my brother. So the study of nature. By the way, I grew up in a place where it was a normal thing to make music and we all played in my family. This interest allowed me to go to college. However, the musician, I quickly felt that I had to focus on earning and play, and I wanted to still open life, so I turned the direction to biology. However, I never thought I could be a writer. If this has changed, this is a perfect job for me because to write a book, you need to become an expert in a hundred different fields
