Plot Summary: The wisteria vines on their own would just barely get by, is how I explained it to Turtle, but put them together with rhizobia and they make miracles.
-Taylor Greer in "The Bean Trees

Marietta Greer spent her childhood in rural Kentucky determined to do two things: avoid getting pregnant and escape rural Kentucky. At the start of the novel, she has headed west in a beat-up '55 Volkswagon, changing her name to " Taylor" when her car runs out of gas in Taylorville, Illinois. By the time two tires give way in Tucson she has with her a stunned, silent three-year-old Cherokee girl who was, literally, dropped into her arms one night. She has named the child Turtle, for her strong, snapping-turtle-like grip. In Tucson Taylor finds friendship and support in Lou Ann Ruiz, a fellow Kentuckian and single mother, with whom she and Turtle share a house. Her newfound community also includes Mattie, who runs a safe house for political refugees in the upstairs rooms above her auto repair shop. The novel's theme of fear, flight, homelessness, and finding sanctuary within a community are present in Taylor's struggle to find a place where she belongs, and the more urgent plight of two Central American refugees, Estevan and Esperanza. These fellow travelers help one another create new lives and redefine the meanings of home and family.

- 1989 School Library Journal Best Books of the Year
- 1989 American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults

Kingsolver on The Bean Trees:

" I always think of a first novel as something like this big old purse you've been carrying around your whole life, throwing in ideas, characters, and all the things that haveever struck you as terribly important. One day, for whatever reason, you just have to dump that big purse out and there lies this pile of junk. You start picking through it, and assembling it into what you hope will be a statement of your life's great themes. That's how it was for me. It probably wasn't until midway through the writing that I had a grasp of the central question: What are the many ways, sometimes hidden and underground ways, that people help themselves and each other survive hard times?"

For additional copies, contact your local bookseller.

Topics for Discussion:

1. The Bean Trees deals with the theme of being an outsider. In what ways are various characters outsiders? What does this suggest about what it takes to be an insider? How does feeling like an outsider affect one's life?

2. How and why do the characters change, especially Lou Ann, Taylor, and Turtle?

3. In many ways, the novel is " the education of Taylor Greer." What does she learn about human suffering? about love?

"This funny, inspiring book is a marvelous affirmation of risk-taking, commitment and everyday miracles...An overwhelming delight, as random and unexpected as real life." (-- Publishers Weekly)

"This is the story of a lovable, resourceful 'instant mother,' one who speaks, acts and learns for herself, becoming an inspiration for us all." (-- Glamour)

For those readers who have not yet fallen under the spell of Kingsolver's storytelling magic, here is her most popular and bestselling novel in its first-ever mass market edition. It is the story about love and friendship, abandonment and belonging, and the discovery of surprising resources in apparently empty places.

An unforgettable story of love and friendship, abandonment and belonging, and the discovery of surprising resources in apparently empty places, The Bean Trees is already well on its way to becoming a classic work of American fiction. The New York Times Book Review hailed it as "the Southern novel taken west, its colors as translucent and polished as one of those slices of rose agate from a desert shop". And the Los Angeles Times praised, "The Bean Trees is the work of a visionary.... It leaves you open-mouthed and smiling". Now, this favorite work among reading groups and a standard for course adoption in schools is available at last in mass market, giving a whole new audience the chance to discover why America loves Barbara Kingsolver.

Barbara Kingsolver's twelve books of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction include the novels The Bean Trees and The Poisonwood Bible. Translated into nineteen languages, her work has won a devoted worldwide readership and many awards, including the National Humanities Medal.