Unsheltered - Softcover

Kingsolver, Barbara

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062684736 ISBN 13: 9780062684738

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2019

Synopsis

New York Times bestseller

An NPR pick for Best Books of 2018

An O, The Oprah Magazine's Best Book of 2018

A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2018

One of Christian Science Monitor's best fiction reads of 2018

One of Newsweek's Best Books of the year

The 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 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.

About this title

Review:

"I felt almost bereft closing the cover on this book... With a spellbinding narrative and its exquisitely accurate evocation of two eras, Barbara Kingsolver's novel is itself a shelter of sorts. One doesn't want to leave it."--Helen Klein Ross, Wall Street Journal

"Barbara Kingsolver does something amazing in her new novel...Uncovering and appreciating the connections between the two stories, historical and contemporary, is the best reason to read the book...Both stories are compelling as Thatcher and Willa lead their families during dangerously uncertain times."--Associated Press

"Unsheltered is a skillful blend of fact and fiction told in alternating chapters... It's a winner all the way...an absolute giant of a book."--New York Journal of Books

"Sophisticated storytelling, compelling characters and sharp humor...Kingsolver is a writer who can help us understand and navigate the chaos of these times."--Minneapolis Star Tribune

"As always, Kingsolver gives readers plenty to think about. Her warm humanism coupled with an unabashed point of view make her a fine 21st-century exponent of the honorable tradition of politically engaged fiction."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Riveting...A tour de force of fiction...about this dynamic conflict between individual expression and communal belonging...One of the most magical parts of UNSHELTERED is how Kingsolver skillfully blends her two narratives into one unified tale, with past and present repeatedly mirroring each other."--BookPage

"A return to the more ambitious, grand scale of novels such as The Lacuna and The Poisonwood Bible...A lively and vividly peopled novel of ideas...Clear throughout the novel is a tension between self-reliance and interdependence."--The Guardian (feature)

"Barbara Kingsolver's latest novel, Unsheltered, will make you weep...But Kingsolver is also downright hilarious...Unsheltered is also a sociopolitical novel tackling real-world issues, especially how we humans navigate profound changes that threaten to unmoor us."--O, the Oprah Magazine

"UNSHELTERED's title suggests a roof gone missing. But it's also a resonant call to be more alert to our social predicaments, to 'stand in the clear light of day.'"--USA Today

"Nuanced and convincing...Engrossing."--Jane Ciabattari, BBC News "Preview"

From the Back Cover:

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0062684736
• ISBN 13: 9780062684738
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 480