Unsettled Ground
Winner of the Costa Novel Award 2021
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3.4 • 7 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
WINNER OF THE COSTA NOVEL AWARD 2021
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE 2021
'Her strongest yet... a powerful, beautiful novel that shows us our land as it really is: a place of shelter and cruelty, innocence and experience' THE TIMES
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When you live on the edge of society, it only takes one step to fall between the cracks
Twins Jeanie and Julius have always been different from other people. At 51 years old, they still live with their mother, Dot, in rural isolation and poverty. Inside the walls of their old cottage they make music, and in the garden they grow (and sometimes kill) everything they need for sustenance.
But when Dot dies suddenly, threats to their livelihood start raining down. Jeanie and Julius would do anything to preserve their small sanctuary against the perils of the outside world, even as their mother's secrets begin to unravel, putting everything they thought they knew about their lives at stake.
Unsettled Ground is a powerful novel of betrayal and resilience, love and survival. It is a portrait of life on the fringes of society that explores with dazzling emotional power how we can build our lives on broken foundations, and spin light from darkness.
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'The way she writes (with empathy but never sentimentality) moves my heart' ELIZABETH DAY, author of Magpie
'A relevant and powerful exploration of isolation and life on the fringes of society' CLARE MACKINTOSH, author of Hostage
'An atmospheric thriller that's both heartbreaking and heartwarming' RED
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fuller (Bitter Orange) follows a pair of 51-year-old twins leading an extremely sheltered life in present-day rural England in this evocative and wondrously anachronistic tale. Jeanie and Julius Seeder reside in the small cottage they grew up in with their widowed mother, Dot, who's just turned 70. Upon Dot's death, the twins' lives are upended. Julius, who's made do with odd jobs, has some social savvy, while his sister, who helped her mother in their extensive garden by supplying eggs and produce to a local market, has had little contact with the outside world. Additionally, Jeanie, felled by rheumatic fever as a child, never learned to read and write, which has rendered even the most mundane tasks into almost insurmountable challenges. The precariousness of their existence comes to the fore when their landlord's wife evicts them. As the two struggle with making ends meet, another tragedy changes their lives and Jeanie comes to learn the truth behind their mother's subterfuge that kept them by her side all her life. Though some readers may struggle to find their footing in the somewhat amorphous setting, Fuller builds suspense over the twins' fate and ends with a brilliant twist. This one is worth staying with.
Customer Reviews
Makes Debbie Downer sound Pollyannaish.
The author is English, a sculptor turned novelist. Her debut, Our Endless Numbered Days, won the 2015 Desmond Elliot Prize (for best debut novel written in English and published in the UK). I haven’t read it. This, Ms Fuller’s fourth, is shortlisted for the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction.
In brief
Fifty-one year old twins Jeannie and Julius, live with their seventy something mother Dot in rural poverty and semi-isolation. Jeannie has a “weak constitution” post-rheumatic fever, and does what she can to help her mother around the house and in the garden. Julius is a tad simple, but does odd jobs in the local area that bring in a little cash. Then one day Dot keels over and dies from a stroke. She’d been having “mini-strokes” in the lead up, for which she had seen the doctor but not told her kids. Turns out there were a few other things (“arrangements”) she hadn’t told them about either, specifically just how much in debt they are. These sad isolated individuals must now confront numerous challenges to their ongoing survival in a world that appears increasingly threatening each day.
Writing
Competent, I suppose, although page after after page of quotidian minutiae did little to progress the plot, such as it was. The characters, whether good and evil, lacked nuance IMHO, and an overwhelming mood of sadness prevailed. Thank God for the dog, the one shining light.
Bottom line
I’m not surprised this book was listed for a literary fiction award, but for me, it made Debbie Downer sound Pollyannaish.