'Pigs in Heaven' by Barbara Kingsolver

2 April

Having loved Barbara Kingsolver's 1988 novel 'The Bean Trees' (reviewed here in June 2025), I was thrilled to discover that she had written a sequel. ‘Pigs in Heaven’ (published in 1993) shows us what has happened to Taylor and her adopted daughter Turtle three years after we left them settled in Tuscon. They are soon unsettled again and back in the car on an extended road trip as Barbara Kingsolver sensitively explores the implications of Turtle’s Cherokee heritage. She brilliantly constructs a seemingly impossible situation, managing to make the reader simultaneously sympathetic to characters with directly opposing points of view (like Andrea Levy in 'Small Island' (reviewed here in June 2019) or Jonathan Franzen in ‘The Corrections’ (reviewed here in February 2015)). But Barbara Kingsolver’s cast of quirky Dickensian characters are all charmingly likeable and you always feel they are going to find a heart-warming solution. 'Pigs in Heaven' is beautifully written and cleverly plotted. It explores the painful realities of working class life while creating a life-affirming story.

Vienna

2 April 2026

We had a lovely time in Vienna last week, visiting the Schonbrunn Palace - the summer residence of the Hapsburgs - where we walked through the room where the six year old Mozart first performed for the Empress. We enjoyed the Gustav Klimt collection at the Belvedere Palace and walked through the Prater amusement park to see the famous Ferris wheel. We went to the Musikverein to see a great concert by The Orchestral Association of the Society of Friends of Music - Vienna's oldest amateur orchestra (founded in 1859 - 11 years before the Musikverein opened). We also visited the stunning Kunsthistoriches Museum and the Albertina - a lovely art gallery within a beautiful Hapsburg palace. We had a day trip to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, where the Old Town is very pretty, with pastel coloured buildings and open squares. We also went by train to the small town of Melk (population 2,000), set on the banks of the Danube in Lower Austria, which is dominated by the dramatic, imposing and enormous Benedictine Monastery, Sift Melk, which sits on a rock, high above the town. Back in Vienna we managed to get cheap standing tickets for the Vienna State Opera where we saw 'The Bartered Bride'. We were in the ground floor standing area at the back of the stalls with a surprisingly good view. It was great to see the inside of the opera house and to see the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. You can see a few of my holiday photos here.