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Unsheltered: A Novel
Unsheltered: A Novel
Unsheltered: A Novel
Audiobook16 hours

Unsheltered: A Novel

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

New York Times Bestseller Named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, O: The Oprah Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek

“Kingsolver brilliantly captures both the price of profound change and how it can pave the way not only for future generations, but also for a radiant, unexpected expansion of the heart.” — O: The Oprah Magazine

The acclaimed author of The Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Trees, and recipient of numerous literary awards—including the National Humanities Medal, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the Orange Prize—returns with a story about two families, in two centuries, 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.

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.

A timely and "utterly captivating" novel (San Francisco Chronicle), Unsheltered interweaves past and present to explore the human capacity for resiliency and compassion in times of great upheaval.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperAudio
Release dateOct 16, 2018
ISBN9780062865502
Author

Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver is the author of ten bestselling works of fiction, including the novels Unsheltered, Flight Behavior, The Lacuna, The Poisonwood Bible, Animal Dreams, and The Bean Trees, as well as books of poetry, essays, and creative nonfiction. Her work of narrative nonfiction is the influential bestseller Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Kingsolver’s work has been translated into more than twenty languages and has earned literary awards and a devoted readership at home and abroad. She was awarded the National Humanities Medal, our country’s highest honor for service through the arts, as well as the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for the body of her work. She lives with her family on a farm in southern Appalachia. 

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Reviews for Unsheltered

Rating: 3.8041301787234043 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I enjoyed this one very much. Some reviewers have objected to all the argumentation incorporated into the story, but as a person who hangs out with botanists I loved it all.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    So much to learn in this book, about houses, history, insects, plants and people. It is totally entertaining.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Much of the writing is magical. Kingsolver is able to tap into hopelessness in a compelling manner. my big problem with the book is that it just ends leaving me hanging.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    While the story was ok I was annoyed at the narrator. Being Greek I could hear the butchered Greek phrases and it made me just want to skip ahead.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved this book!
    It leaves a lot of room for consideration of the state of our culture.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was a very interesting and clever interweaving of the 19th and 21st centuries, showing frightening similarities that we need to consider deeply.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book intertwines two stories with so much craft I was sorry to finish. There are some golden life lessons here. Multiple perspectives make the divergence between times and lives an interesting discovery along the way.

    Barbara Kingsolver is a Master Storyteller. Her voice and Northern accent was captivating to me. I am a fan. Thanks to all the marvelous people who contributed to this production. Being a writer is an ongoing educational experience.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Another excellent book by this author. Kingsolver's portrayals of female characters is wonderful, & enlightening. In addition, her weaving of history & knowledge of the natural world into her works never fails to fascinate.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A good book to listen, calm but assertive through it's storytelling. Partly based on real people and events and switching between old times and modern times it weaves a comforting tale reminding once again that change indeed is the only neverchanging thing. How the world, people and attitudes evolve-and how differently people can emotionally survive when faced difficult times and challenges. And how those individual survivals, seemingly small and feeble in the whole picture, actually often are important parts affecting future generations will, force and capacity of survival.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book is a solid 4.5. I really loved the characters and the connections they had to each other.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A love hate relationship developed as I read this book. I’m glad that I finally finished it despite it being monotonous and quite nagging thanks to the over melodramatic family.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A book that lifted my heart from beginning to end. Barbara Kingsolver is an American treasure
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I always love how Barbara Kingsolver takes current concerns and weaves them into stories that provide a historical arc while also giving a glimpse into a (somewhat) hopeful future. She did not disappoint in this book. Many thanks to her for keeping us entranced and engaged.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    One of my favorite audio books. I just really related to this book on so many levels and I really enjoyed listening to it on commute. I got very into the story and couldn't wait to get back in my car to listen more! It really explored the commonalities of nationalism in our past and recent American history.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Unfortunally unlistenable due to the echo in recording. You go through the trouble and hire the author to read the text themselves, can't you go an extra mile and set it up professionally?
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A dual-timeline narrative covering two families living on the same land in New Jersey, separated by 140 years. In 2016, we find the Knox family: protagonist Willa and her husband, Iano, live in an inherited run-down house with their two adult children, father-in-law, and grandchild. They are dealing with a family tragedy, crumbling house, massive debt, loss of employment, and health care issues.

    In 1871, we find the Greenwood family: schoolteacher Thatcher Greenwood and his materialistic wife Rose deal with a dilapidated house and lack of resources. Greenwood wants to share Darwin’s new theories with his classes, but the locals are decidedly against it. He befriends neighboring scientist, Mary Treat, who has corresponded with Darwin and conducts botanical and entomological experiments in her home. The story is told in alternating perspectives between the two families.

    Positives: The stories are well-crafted and woven together with common themes. It tackles several critical issues of today and ties them to their root causes. It explores the concept of shelter from both an individual and global perspective.

    Negatives: The book is full of lengthy dialogues among the characters that do not feel organic. The messaging is a little too blatant, almost as if the author does not trust the reader to “get it” from a more nuanced story. I usually love books that feature science, but I found my mind wandering.

    Overall: It is a good read, but not my favorite by this author. It is hard not to compare it to her earlier writings. I much preferred The Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Trees.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Two families live in the same ramshackle house 150 years apart. Thatcher, in the 1870's struggles as a science teacher who wants to teach evolution. Iano and his wife move in 150 years later, afraid the house will crumble around them, but unable to afford anything else as he begins the chase for tenure again at yet another college. Both families deal with multiple generations living together. People in both families befriend the unconventional neighbors.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Contrary to the title of the book, this is the story of one particular shelter - a house called Vineland that sheltered two different families over 140 years apart. A house that stood the test of time until it couldn't.Modern day: Willa and Iano's marriage is unsheltered from harsh realities. Behind Willa's every thought of Iano is a trace of disappointment. He doesn't respect her privacy. He is hardly the breadwinning husband even though she is the out-of-work journalist. As a professor with adoring students and a history of infidelity, Willa cannot trust him. Adding to the stress Iano's very ill father has come to live with them in their condemned (no longer sheltering) house. Then there is Willa's son. Zeke has his own share of trouble. His live-in girlfriend has committed suicide, leaving him with a newborn son and a pile of debt. Helene was the one with the income while Zeke was a student at the Harvard Business School. Guess who is left to care for the newborn? This is the opening shot across the bow for Unsheltered. Kingsolver delves into so much (so much!) more as the story unfolds. Historical plot follows the life of real-life naturalist Mary Treat and her quest to study the world around her. Charles Darwin has page time and even the nomination of a tyrant for a President of the United Sates gets a mention. I don't want to say anymore except that Kingsolver is a master of words.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Through a work of fiction, Barbara Kingsolver brings us a contrast between modern day ( Willa and family) and the days of Charles Darwin ( Thatcher Greenwood and Mary Treat) with both generations questioning there place in the world and how to live in the future. Thatcher is a science teacher who tries to bring some enlightenment to Vineland in regards to the theory of the evolution of species by natural selection. This in a " God fearing town" run by Charles Landis. Some stories in this novel are true like Mary Treat and the Venus flytrap and the murder on Main St. The modern day family has come to Vineland in the house next door to Mary Treat and the social message they struggle with is how to be a success in a new definition of the word. How to live with less in a world of climate change. Willa's family could be all of us. The son Zeke is a money manager type. Her husband a professor and they have his Greek father on oxygen living with them spewing Trumpisms. Little Tig is the firebrand who will save the planet.The blending of past and present and the discourse on our natural world is very well delivered in "Unsheltered._
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A tale of two families, 140 years apart, living on the same plot of land dealing with a collapsing house. The characters were well drawn and had impressive integrity. In both tales, besides their falling down house, they were dealing with a collapsing world view with some championing the new and most hanging on tenaciously to the old.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Willa Knox has always prided herself one I g the embodiment of responsibility for her family. She has nothing to show for her hard work except a stack of unpaid bills and an inherited brick home that is literally falling apart. She has lost her job at her magazine and the college where her husband had tenure has closed. This is the story of two families, in two centuries, as they navigate the challenges of surviving a world in the throes of cultural shifts. Told in alternating chapters, Willa and Thatcher come to realize that though the future is uncertain, shelter can be found in the strength of the hu,an spirit.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It was really challenging to get through the first half of this book. Everything that could go wrong seemed to be doing so, and I didn't need to read another hopeless book! The characters just seemed like mouth pieces for Kingsolver's opinions about the state of the world, and I did not need to read more of that (even though I share many of her opinions). There didn't seem to be much "new" in this book, either: more mother/daughter conflict and characters with strange names (think Pigs in Heaven). Why Willa can't just humour her father-in-law's bigoted opinions in the final days of his life I don't get. The man is clearly dying and she's still getting upset and arguing with him. Why?! It's obviously a fool's errand to argue with him and it's nothing she's not heard before. That his diatribes still hold weight to antagonize her is mystifying. Thatcher Greenwood's testimony in the trial was unconvincing and lame (not very court room or scientific, either) when a real argument could have been made. That story line unravelled a bit for me near the end. But Willa's family, namely Tig, finally grow on me when they turn a corner of their hopeless outlook. What redeems the book from so much of its blatant sermonizing, to me, is Tig's perspective on why "The Bullhorn" has such political success. The town's fear of Darwin's teaching is the one somewhat subtle juxtaposition and revelation in the book. People hold tightly to the American Dream and capitalism because that's all they know, and the Bullhorn upholds that reality for them, even if it is with a smokescreen. My own life-stress comes from not having that capitalist life, and the book helped me see that more and more of us will have to find other ways of living and seeing. The book gifted me that hope.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Barbara Kingsolver loves to explore science in much detail and this exploration sinks into boredom. Kingsolver jumps into two family sagas which delight but then fall into tedious dribble. Each family encounters the deterioration of the actual home and the family unit. The language and characters resonate beautifully, but too much detail dampens the story. Kingsolver explores each family one from the past and one from the present with complete understanding of the problems plaguing each generation and how each family handles life’s dilemmas.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Kingsolver does not disappoint as she strives to answer the question WTF in our current society by examining issues present and past in a planned community of the 1870s just after The Civil War (past) and topics like health care, immigration, a living wage, college debt (present). Would be a good book to discuss in book club.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I got about 70 pages in, and found this book a depressing slog - rather too much like sitting through holiday meals with my least pleasant relatives. I went to look for reviews to give me a sense of whether I should continue, and the verdict seems to be that the book remains much the same the whole way through.

    What I read also made me wonder if Barbara Kingsolver is a bit out of touch. The book just felt offbase about its younger characters, who at least in the early pages feel much more like caricatures than like humans.

    DNF.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Willa Knox has inherited a decrepit house in Vineland New Jersey. She and her family, college professor husband, his disabled father, their free-spirited daughter, move in after the magazine she writes for fails and the college where her husband had tenure closes. How, Willa wonders, can a couple do everything right and responsibly, and be destitute in middle age? Seeking grants to repair her house, Willa starts researching Vineland history, and discovers a noted female naturalist who lived next door. The novel moves back and forth between the stories of the two families who lived in the house in the 19th and 21t centuries and the challenges and changes they face. Entertaining and engaging.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I really enjoyed this book, is illustrates society as a whole in the microcosm of two families. It also shows the adage of "the more things changes the more they stay the same" is more true that one might recognize. It is a bit slower to get going tham most of Kingsolvers books, but well worth the journey.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Damn, I wanted to like this book so much! The first chapter deals with a suicide and the way the book describes the circumstances triggered me and distressed me nearly to the point of having to stop reading it. But I tried to continue. Then the book took a wild turn where it seemed as if the author was preaching to the reader about her own personal views. Political nonsense that no one really wants or needs to hear from a work of fiction.It was a "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me" scenerio for me with this book. I had to put it down.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I read the blurb and thought OH GREAT... this takes place in Vineland, NJ. I'm familiar with the area - I lived in Glassboro for 4 years. ANYWAY....

    NO NO NO. Maybe if I gave it more than 150 pages, it would have improved. They started by giving a ridiculous "NJ accent" that I have NEVER HEARD. Then the characters lives were just pitiful. It went from bad to awful in a matter of pages... wives dying, father a PITA and dying, a house literally dying and language that was a bit too pretentious for me.

    So. I'M DONE.

    There are too many books out there to suffer on this one that pissed me off in the first few pages.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I always eagerly anticipate a new novel from Barbara Kingsolver but have to admit that by the time I got to the end of this one (a struggle at times because I very soon felt that it was in need of some serious editing!) I was left feeling hugely disappointed. Essentially this was because the premise of highlighting the comparisons between the two timelines had felt so promising, and the fact that all the topics she covered and issues she raised are ones I’m keenly interested in. However, what came to feel like a relentless polemic had the effect of overshadowing her wonderful skills as a story-teller. I wanted to remind her that there are times when less really is more! I felt that the nuanced character-development, which I’ve enjoyed in so many of her other books, had somehow become victim to her determination to get her various messages across. To end on a more positive note, there were moments when I was reading when I was reminded of my admiration for the author’s ability to succinctly encapsulate a mood or a sentiment. Just one example was a sentence which particularly resonated with me, and which I’ve put on a post-it note above my desk because it feels such a perfect description for the way the world is today:“All the rules have changed and it’s hard to watch people keep carrying on just the same, like it’s business as usual.”Somewhat depressing, but so very apt.