A New York Times Bestseller Named one of the Best Books of the Year (2018) by NPR, O, The Oprah Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Christian Science Monitor and NewsweekThe New York Times bestselling author of Flight Behavior, The Lacuna, and The Poisonwood Bible and recipient of numerous literary awards—including the National Humanities Medal, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the Orange … The Lacuna, and The Poisonwood Bible and recipient of numerous literary awards—including the National Humanities Medal, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the Orange Prize—returns with a timely novel that interweaves past and present to explore the human capacity for resiliency and compassion in times of great upheaval.
How could two hardworking people do everything right in life, a woman asks, and end up destitute? Willa Knox and her husband followed all the rules as responsible parents and professionals, and have nothing to show for it but debts and an inherited brick house that is falling apart. The magazine where Willa worked has folded; the college where her husband had tenure has closed. Their dubious shelter is also the only option for a disabled father-in-law and an exasperating, free-spirited daughter. When the family’s one success story, an Ivy-educated son, is uprooted by tragedy he seems likely to join them, with dark complications of his own.
In another time, a troubled husband and public servant asks, How can a man tell the truth, and be reviled for it? A science teacher with a passion for honest investigation, Thatcher Greenwood finds himself under siege: his employer forbids him to speak of the exciting work just published by Charles Darwin. His young bride and social-climbing mother-in-law bristle at the risk of scandal, and dismiss his worries that their elegant house is unsound. In a village ostensibly founded as a benevolent Utopia, Thatcher wants only to honor his duties, but his friendships with a woman scientist and a renegade newspaper editor threaten to draw him into a vendetta with the town’s powerful men.
Unsheltered is the compulsively readable story of two families, in two centuries, who live at the corner of Sixth and Plum in Vineland, New Jersey, navigating what seems to be the end of the world as they know it. With history as their tantalizing canvas, these characters paint a startlingly relevant portrait of life in precarious times when the foundations of the past have failed to prepare us for the future.
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Kingsolver creates two worlds (one past, one present) and skillfully weaves them together into one unforgettable story about seeking shelter, whatever that might mean to each of us. Although some of the lesser characters are a bit cookie-cutterish, the main characters stand out on the page as flawed but lovable. I actually enjoyed the historical story slightly more than the 21st century one, especially because it made me hopeful about getting past our current divisions. Highly recommended.
I applaud authors who write about the world today. That’s hard. Today is moving so fast. The characters here are wonderfully recognizable, worrying about health insurance and the American Presidency and global warming. Just to be contrary, I also really liked the braid of these modern characters with scenes from the nineteenth century, the struggle between people supporting Darwin’s new theory of evolution and those decrying that theory. That time in history is meant to resonate with our current time in history. Angry resistence to new ways of thinking about the world. Last angry gasps of old thinking. Sometimes Barbara Kingsolver’s characters are a little stereotypic or two-dimensional but I had to forgive that in a complex novel that tries to deal with such important topics.
I have always loved Barbara Kingsolver, and she never disappoints. She can write a book like Lacuna, about great and tortured artists, or a quiet book like Unsheltered, spanning different generations and their reckoning with the world. I learned a lot, reading this book, and loved the characters within it.
Loved it
Light too political for my taste
Resonated long after I finished it.
Not one of her best books.
Barbara Kingsolver always delivers wonderful writing. Great novel.
A really good book that alternates chapter by chapter from post-Civil War to the present day. The two families that are the centers of the story inhabit the same home, 150 years distant, a home that is literally falling down around them. The house is situated in the middle of a town created as a utopia but that is actually a community created for people who fear modernity, controlled by a Barnum-type showman who allows no dissent and encourages no free thought. The town in New Jersey and the characters of Mary Treat, a female self-trained as a scientist, and the town’s founder (whose name I’ve forgotten) are based in history. There is, typical of Kingsolver, a great deal of political commentary that envelops the current President, the economic collapse of capitalism as a foundational system and the destruction of the environment. I loved the book and the parallels between these seemingly distant families and the metaphors for what it means to live “unsheltered”.
Enjoyed but felt the evolution debate section was too long.
M’eh. I expected more after Poisonwood Bible.
Not my favorite Kingsolver, a little depressing, but a great representation of the way the economy is changing the way we live and the expectations of the next generations.
This is SUCH a difficult book about which to write a review. I’ve read many, and Unsheltered seems to be like cilantro – people either love or hate it, regardless of whether or not the reader loves or hates the author’s other books (sorta, kinda like I love Indian and Mexican foods, even though they both invariably include the hideous herb).
Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver is one of those books that connects with the reader (or doesn’t) on a very deep level. This usually means, in my experience, that the time and circumstance of life of the reader as well as the overall feelings about the world and one’s place in it (eg parental, political, religious, etc. outlook) – as well as the reader’s general patience level, because, let’s face it, the book requires a bit of stamina – have a LOT to do with how one will react to this story.
The story is brilliant, in my estimation, but that is not to say I had a jolly time reading it (I actually listened to Barbara herself narrate it – very well, actually.) It is not in any way ‘escapist’ – just the opposite. But it gave me so much to think about. And I sooo wish I was part of a Book Club to discuss it.
It is not a happy book, and yet, there is a hope and a resilience and a proactive, survive-and-learn outlook that one can take away from the experience. So, it is DEFINITELY worth trying to read at a time when you have given yourself space and time to give it a chance, and if you can set aside your biases and old-world mentality. For instance, it wasn’t until the end of the book that I could think of ‘unsheltered’ in anything but sad, anxious, negative terms. But then …
Hold on to your butts. This is paradigm shifting stuff.
Timely
This was an intriguing story and as always Barbara Kingsolver informs while keeping the reader turning pages.
This is a great work of fiction based on a real female botanist/scientist living in the age of Darwinism. The story goes back and forth between a modern day family and families living on same land, in same houses a century before, and the connection that the main character finds.
Not terribly engaging. I was bummed because I really like her writing.
Kingsolver is a lot-wing writer who happens to provide information that all of us may need to hear. As a Centrist/Republican, I knew this when I began the book. I wanted to read what she had to say and see for myself if I agreed. The story has two families who live in the same house but 140 years apart. Parallel lives of the characters brings about her topics on Darwinism as well as other political food for thought. After discussing in my book club, I began to understand better the issues many Americans are now facing when they should have been living comfortably after working hard all their lives. Even FOX news points out the same issues Americans from all political backgrounds. Well worth reading.
With a poorly constructed, falling-down house as a central character, Kingsolver constructs a gripping novel describing the travails of two families of different generations. The allusions to social and political situations of the late Nineteenth Century and today are haunting. Superb!
I’ m a fan of Barbara Kingsolver. Her books always incorporate an important social/environmental issue. This weaves characters from two generations of very different families connected by residing in the same house. Was somewhat difficult to keep track of characters in 2 separate time periods as I listened via audiobook. I would have been better off reading the book.