In the Bean Trees, Taylor Green describes her journey away from her poor rural roots. She heads west and begins to change. She takes a new name, after the town where she runs out of petrol, and accepts the care of Turtle, a traumatised child, from an elderly Cherokee Indian. Settling in the middle of a tribe of offbeat characters in Tuscon, Arizona, Taylor and Turtle overcome crises and build for their future in the America of drive-ins, burger joints and cheap rooming houses. Barbara Kingsolver’s touching story of Taylor and Turtle epitomises the unregarded, uncelebrated resourcefulness needed for day to day survival on the edge anywhere.
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