The Poisonwood Bible (1998), by Barbara Kingsolver, is a best-selling novel about a missionary family, the Prices, who in 1959 move from the U.S. state of Georgia to the village of Kilanga in the Belgian Congo, close to the Kwilu River.

The four girls increasingly mature and develop differently as each adapts to African village life and the political turmoil that overtakes the Belgian Congo in the 1960s.

The Price daughters – Rachel, Leah, Adah and Ruth May – and their mother, Orleanna, and father, Nathan, attend their first church service in the village of Kilanga, and they realize how different their culture is from that of the Congo.

Leah and her twin Adah begin to spy on Eeben Axelroot, the pilot who conveyed the family to Kilanga, and Nathan tries to convince Congolese men, one by one, to convert to Christianity.

Leah begins to spend a lot of time with Anatole, Kilanga's teacher, discussing topics such as justice and the Congo.

[1] The remaining Price sisters go through many different life changes: Adah dedicates herself to getting a scientific education back home (she is hemiplegic and wants to learn more about the condition); Leah marries Anatole and they start a family together; Rachel remains perceptive but vain and distrustful of men, goes through a string of marriages, and starts a business; and Nathan dies in his unsuccessful mission: killed by a mob of Kilanga's villagers when they blame him for a crocodile attack on a boat of children.

The story ends with a final chapter from Ruth May reflecting on her sisters and mother attempting to visit her grave, but not being able to find it, and a woman telling them a place named Kilanga never existed.

[6] In March 2019, Bond Group Entertainment – a production company launched by actress Amy Adams and her manager Stacy O'Neil – secured a first-look deal with HBO to develop a TV adaptation of Kingsolver's novel.

Adams and O’Neil will executive produce the limited series, while Anya Epstein and Kingsolver are writing the screenplay.