High Tide in Tucson

Essays from Now or Never

by Barbara Kingsolver

On Sale: 11/25/2003

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High Tide in Tucson

Essays from Now or Never

by Barbara Kingsolver

On Sale: 11/25/2003

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About the Book

"Clever. . . magical. . . beautifully crafted. Kingsolver spins you around the philosophic world a dozen times." — Milwaukee Sentinel

"There is no one quite like Barbara Kingsolver in contemporary literature," raves the Washington Post Book World, and it is right. Kingsolver's critically acclaimed writings always entertain and touch her legions of loyal fans. In High Tide in Tucson, she returns to her familiar themes of family, community, the common good, and the natural world.

The title essay considers Buster, a hermit crab that accidentally stows away on Kingsolver's return trip from the Bahamas to her desert home, and turns out to have manic-depressive tendencies. Buster is running around for all he's worth—one can only presume it's high tide in Tucson. Kingsolver brings a moral vision and refreshing sense of humor to subjects ranging from modern motherhood to the history of private property to the suspended citizenship of human beings in the Animal Kingdom.

Beautifully packaged, with original illustrations by illustrator Paul Mirocha, these wise lessons on the urgent business of being alive make it a perfect gift for Kingsolver's many fans.

Critical Praise

"A book full of discoveries." — Cleveland Plain Dealer

“A delightful, challenging, and wonderfully informative book.” — San Francisco Chronicle

"Brilliant. . . lucid, well thought-out, and remarkably sensitive. Kingsolver's power will linger long after you've finished High Tide in Tucson." — Kansas City Star

"Clever. . . magical. . . beautifully crafted. Kingsolver spins you around the philosophic world a dozen times." — Milwaukee Sentinel

"Kingsolver's essays should be savored like quiet afternoons with a friend. . . . [She] speaks in a language rich with music and replete with good sense." — New York Times Book Review

"Kingsolver possesses the rare ability to see the natural world with the keenness of both the poet and the naturalist." — Washington Times

"The acclaimed novelist's extraordinary powers of observations and understanding of character serve her beautifully in this collection of essays." — Entertainment Weekly

"Whether cultural, personal, or theoretical, Kingsolver's nonfiction is a delight." — Seattle Times

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Product Details

ISBN: 9780060927561
ISBN 10: 0060927569
Imprint: Harper Perennial
On Sale: 11/25/2003
Pages: 304
List Price:23.99 CAD
BISAC1 : FICTION / Classics
BISAC2 : LITERARY CRITICISM / Feminist
BISAC3 : LITERARY CRITICISM / Books & Reading
BISAC4 : LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General
BISAC5 : LITERARY COLLECTIONS / American / General
BISAC6 : SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Ecology
BISAC7 : HISTORY / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies)
BISAC8 : HISTORY / Social History
BISAC9 : NATURE / Essays
BISAC10 : LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Women Authors
BISAC11 : LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Essays

Barbara Kingsolver

Biography

Barbara Kingsolver was born in 1955 and grew up in rural Kentucky. She earned degrees in biology from DePauw University and the University of Arizona, and has worked as a freelance writer and author since 1985. At various times she has lived in England, France, and the Canary Islands, and has worked in Europe, Africa, Asia, Mexico, and South America. She spent two decades in Tucson, Arizona, before moving to southwestern Virginia where she currently resides.

Her books, in order of publication, are: The Bean Trees (1988), Homeland (1989), Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike (1989), Animal Dreams (1990), Another America (1992), Pigs in Heaven (1993), High Tide in Tucson (1995), The Poisonwood Bible (1998), Prodigal Summer (2000), Small Wonder (2002), Last Stand: America’s Virgin Lands, with photographer Annie Griffiths (2002), Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (2007), The Lacuna (2009), Flight Behavior (2012), Unsheltered (2018), How To Fly (In 10,000 Easy Lessons) (2020), Demon Copperhead (2022), and coauthored with Lily Kingsolver, Coyote's Wild Home (2023). She served as editor for Best American Short Stories 2001.

Kingsolver was named one the most important writers of the 20th Century by Writers Digest, and in 2023 won a Pulitzer Prize for her novel Demon Copperhead. In 2000 she received the National Humanities Medal, our country’s highest honor for service through the arts. Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages and have been adopted into the core curriculum in high schools and colleges throughout the nation. Critical acclaim for her work includes multiple awards from the American Booksellers Association and the American Library Association, a James Beard award, two-time Oprah Book Club selection, and the national book award of South Africa, among others. She was awarded Britain's prestigious Women's Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize) for both Demon Copperhead and The Lacuna, making Kingsolver the first author in the history of the prize to win it twice. In 2011, Kingsolver was awarded the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for the body of her work. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

She has two daughters, Camille (born in 1987) and Lily (1996). She and her husband, Steven Hopp, live on a farm in southern Appalachia where they raise an extensive vegetable garden and Icelandic sheep.