- Source: Unsheltered (novel)
Unsheltered is a 2018 novel by Barbara Kingsolver published by HarperCollins. It follows two families living in the same house at two separate time periods in Vineland, New Jersey. The novel alternates between the 21st century and the 19th century, using the last words of one chapter as the title of the next one. One family lived in the house in the 1800s and the other family resides in the house in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
Plot
Major characters
21st century:
Willa Knox – journalist
Iano Tavoularis – PhD in political science, her husband
Tig (Antigone) – Willa and Iano's daughter
Zeke – Willa and Iano's son
Nick – Iano's irascible father
Dixie – the dog
Helene – Zeke's girlfriend, who committed suicide
Aldus (Dusty) – Zeke and Helene's infant son
Athena, Lita, and Irini – Iano's sisters
Christopher Hawk – museum curator
Jorge – Neighbor boy, Tig's boyfriend
19th century (some modelled on real persons):
Thatcher Greenwood – BS in Biology
Rose – his wife
Mary Treat – neighbor (real-life naturalist, botanist, entomologist); next-door neighbor
Polly – Rose's sister
Aurelia – Rose's mother
Selma – Mary's servant girl/botany assistant
Captain Charles K. Landis – Vinland's founder, mayor and land agent
Professor Cutler – principal of school where Thatcher teaches; toady to Landis
Uri Carruth – editor of rival paper
Charybdis & Scylla – dogs of the Greenwood family
Reception and awards
The novel received mostly positive reviews from critics. According to Book Marks, the book received a "positive" consensus, based on twenty-seven critic reviews: thirty-eleven "rave", twelve "positive", two "mixed", and two "pan". In Books in the Media, the book received a (3.73 out of 5) based on fourteen critic reviews. On January/February 2019 issue of Bookmarks, the book received a (3.0 out of 5) based on critic reviews.
Writing in the New York Times, Meg Wolitzer, says this book "lures us into" this story about a house and the two different families that occupy it during two different periods of time. Ilana Masad states in her NPR review that by the end of the novel "Kingsolver doesn't give us solutions, but she reminds us to take comfort in one another when we can, and that hope is necessary even when all seems lost." Benjamin Evans' review in The Guardian notes, "Unlike the incompetent architect of the house in her latest book, Unsheltered, American novelist Barbara Kingsolver has proved herself a supreme craftsperson over the past three decades. She possesses a knack for ingenious metaphors that encapsulate the social questions at the heart of her stories."
References
External links
"Unsheltered" at Barbara Kingsolver's authorized website