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Book Cover for: Unsettled Ground, Claire Fuller

Unsettled Ground

Claire Fuller

Reader Score

77%

77% of readers

recommend this book

Critic Reviews

Great

Based on 18 reviews on

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At fifty-one years old, twins Jeanie and Julius still live with their mother, Dot, in rural isolation in the English countryside. The cottage they have shared their entire lives is their only protection against the modernizing world around them. Inside its walls, they make music, and in its garden, they grow everything they need to survive. To an outsider, it looks like poverty; to them, it is home.

But when Dot dies unexpectedly, the world they've so carefully created begins to fall apart. The cottage they love, and the security it offered, is taken back by their landlord, exposing the twins to harsh truths and even harsher realities. Seeing a new future, Julius becomes torn between the loyalty he feels towards his sister and his desire for independence, while Jeanie struggles to find work and a home for them both. And just when it seems there might be a way forward, a series of startling secrets from their mother's past come to the surface, forcing the twins to question who they are, and everything they know of their family's history.

In Unsettled Ground, award-winning author Claire Fuller masterfully builds a tale of sacrifice and hope, of homelessness and hardship, of love and survival, in which two marginalized and remarkable people uncover long-held family secrets and, in their own way, repair, recover, and begin again.


Book Details

  • Publisher: Tin House Books
  • Publish Date: May 18th, 2021
  • Pages: 330
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.60in - 5.80in - 1.20in - 1.10lb
  • EAN: 9781951142483
  • Categories: Family Life - SiblingsPsychologicalLiterary

About the Author

Fuller, Claire: -

Claire Fuller is the author of Our Endless Numbered Days, which won the Desmond Elliott Prize; Swimming Lessons; Bitter Orange; and Unsettled Ground, which won the Costa Novel Award and was a finalist for the Women's Prize for Fiction. She has an MA in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Winchester and lives in Hampshire with her husband.


www.clairefuller.co.uk


Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

A gorgeously written and moving portrait of a family struggling against time.--Lucy Tan, author of What We Were Promised
Another sly psychological treat from Claire Fuller, who just keeps on getting better with each book.--Laline Paull, author of The Ice
Fuller's prose is darkly elegant, her eye for character astute and humane, and her sense of place vividly atmospheric--here is a writer of great skill, sensitivity, and subtlety.--Lucy Atkins, author of Magpie Lane
Claire Fuller strikes the perfect balance between beauty and melancholy in this relevant and powerful exploration of isolation and life on the fringes of society.--Clare Mackintosh, author of After the End
Engrossing.-- "Entertainment Weekly"
Revelatory. . . . a powerful, beautiful novel.-- "The Times (UK)"
A book like Unsettled Ground is why we read. . . . Written with tenderness and beauty, Unsettled Ground is not to be missed.--Sherri Gallentine, Vroman's Bookstore, BuzzFeed Best Books of Spring as Recommended by Booksellers
An intriguing premise made more so by the paucity of novels featuring vulnerable older adults.-- "Financial Times"
Superb.-- "Daily Mail"
Evocative. . . . Fuller builds suspense over the twins' fate and ends with a brilliant twist.-- "Publishers Weekly"
Fuller is a master of building suspense. . . . At once unsettling and hopeful, her book checks all the boxes of an engrossing mystery.-- "Kirkus Reviews"
Fuller explores the painful realities of poverty and social isolation with immense sensitivity in this multilayered and emotionally astute novel.-- "The Guardian"
If you're a reader who lives for contemplative storytelling and perfectly wrought characters, this author is for you.-- "BookPage"
Ambitious.-- "The TLS"
[Fuller's] absorbing novel unsettles us with its fine evocation of life's fragility while grounding us in the healing powers of love, loyalty and nature's bounty.-- "Independent (IRE)"
A quiet tale of loss and survival.-- "Good Housekeeping"
Transfixing.-- "Chicago Review of Books"
Devastatingly haunting.-- "Booklist, Starred Review"
A simple but powerful story of rural poverty, sibling relationships and, perhaps above all, resilience.-- "PureWow"
An unnerving and emotional novel of family secrets, vulnerability and resilience.-- "Shelf Awareness"
A winner.-- "The Center for Fiction"
Fascinating.-- "The Star (Canada)"
A story full of secrets in which nothing is quite as it seems.-- "New Books Network Podcast"
Beautiful and intriguing.-- "Across the Pond Podcast"
One mystery after another arises and two siblings who have been left behind by the modern world face changes both gentle and profound.-- "The Daily Beast"
Rapturous.-- "The San Diego Union Tribune"
A darkly poignant novel about an unusual family.-- "Texas Public Radio"
Suffused with gorgeous little details.-- "Feminist Book Club"
Fuller has created a propulsive story that readers can't help but get caught up in.-- "Necessary Fiction"
Timeless. . . . [a] shadowy family saga, which is marked by illicit love, violence and blood debts.-- "The Wall Street Journal"
Powerful. . . . fascinating.-- "BookRiot"
A page-turner. . . . reflecting the humble beauty of country life in every page, Unsettled Ground will appeal to a wide array of readers.-- "Harvard Review"
Prepare for an experience of the English countryside that's somewhat at odds with its typically idyllic depiction. . . . As the title suggests, at each turn there's something new and unexpected.-- "Bookmarks"
You'll find yourself desperately rooting for Julius and Jeannie.-- "The Weekly Reader"
An intriguing, moving novel that will make you question assumptions you have about modern life.--Tracy Chevalier
Wonderful. Unsettled Ground is a beautifully constructed book with interesting characters, and I'm convinced I won't read a better one this year.--Ron Rash, The Boston Globe