"You never know which split second might be the zigzag bolt dividing all that went before from everything that comes next." (p 359) This is Dellarobia Turnbow, loving mother, discontented wife, misfit in a small Tennessee town of Christian fundamentalists, musing on the possibility of transformation towards the end of Barbara Kingsolver's new novel Flight Behaviour.

The story is set in motion with Dellarobia's astonished encounter with a fiery miracle. It turns her from a path destined for disappointment, back to her family. She has no idea what she has seen, but senses that it is important enough to urge her placid and compliant husband Cub, and her father-in-law up the mountain to see what is there, before they sell off the land for some much needed income. The phenomenon they find changes their lives in a myriad of ways - their economic fortunes seem to improve, their mountain becomes the focus of intense scientific and media attention and a crack of insight into the catastrophe of changing climate opens in the community and particularly in Dellrobia's consciousness.

It is difficult to describe this novel. Readers need to take the journey of discovery to feel the full impact and to give away too much will lessen the experience. Kingsolver's description of Dellarobia's life and circumstances is vivid - the economic decline of the region and the struggle of her family against poverty are deftly portrayed. The claustrophobia of exisitence in the community, family and the church is palpable. Dellarobia is loving, exasperated, jaunty and hungry for experience. She shines as a mother and with her wisecracking girlfriend Dovey. Kingsolver enmeshes her in events that operate far beyond her realm of understanding and control. The author does not resile from showing the serious consequences of those events. This is an extraordinary story which pulls religion, science, media, economics and ethics into its orbit as well as showing the remorseless process of nature. I found it ambitious, provoking and rewarding.