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Unsettled Ground Kindle Edition
Winner of the 2021 Costa Novel Award
Finalist for the Women's Prize in Fiction
Named a Best Book of the Month by Entertainment Weekly, PopSugar, Bustle, Chicago Review of Books, PureWow, a Best Book of Summer by Daily Beast and one of Good Housekeeping's Best Books of 2021
"Full of dramatic twists and turns right up until its moving, beautiful end." —NPR Books
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.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherTin House Books
- Publication dateMay 18, 2021
- File size1357 KB
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From the Publisher
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Review
― The Star (Canada)
"A darkly poignant novel about an unusual family."
― Texas Public Radio
"Transfixing."
― Chicago Review of Books
"A gorgeously written and moving portrait of a family struggling against time."
― Lucy Tan, author of What We Were Promised
"An unnerving and emotional novel of family secrets, vulnerability and resilience."
― Shelf Awareness
"Revelatory. . . . a powerful, beautiful novel."
― The Times (UK)
"Fuller explores the painful realities of poverty and social isolation with immense sensitivity in this multilayered and emotionally astute novel."
― The Guardian
"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
"A winner."
― The Center for Fiction
"[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)
"Engrossing."
― Entertainment Weekly
"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
"Timeless. . . . [a] shadowy family saga, which is marked by illicit love, violence and blood debts."
― The Wall Street Journal
"An intriguing premise made more so by the paucity of novels featuring vulnerable older adults."
― Financial Times
"Evocative. . . . Fuller builds suspense over the twins’ fate and ends with a brilliant twist."
― Publishers Weekly
"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
"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
"Suffused with gorgeous little details."
― Feminist Book Club
"Fuller is a master of building suspense. . . . At once unsettling and hopeful, her book checks all the boxes of an engrossing mystery."
― Kirkus Reviews
"Devastatingly haunting."
― Booklist, Starred Review
"Powerful. . . . fascinating."
― BookRiot
"Rapturous."
― The San Diego Union Tribune
"Ambitious."
― The TLS
"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
"A simple but powerful story of rural poverty, sibling relationships and, perhaps above all, resilience."
― PureWow
"Superb."
― Daily Mail
"Beautiful and intriguing."
― Across the Pond Podcast
"You'll find yourself desperately rooting for Julius and Jeannie."
― The Weekly Reader
"A story full of secrets in which nothing is quite as it seems."
― New Books Network Podcast
"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
"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
"Another sly psychological treat from Claire Fuller, who just keeps on getting better with each book."
― Laline Paull, author of The Ice
"Fuller has created a propulsive story that readers can’t help but get caught up in."
― Necessary Fiction
"An intriguing, moving novel that will make you question assumptions you have about modern life."
― Tracy Chevalier
"If you’re a reader who lives for contemplative storytelling and perfectly wrought characters, this author is for you."
― BookPage
"A quiet tale of loss and survival."
― Good Housekeeping
About the Author
Claire Fuller's debut novel, Our Endless Numbered Days, won the Desmond Elliott Prize in the UK, was a finalist in the ABA (American Booksellers Association) 2016 Indies Best Books Award, and was selected by Powells as an indiespensible book.
Her second novel, Swimming Lessons, will be published in February 2017.
Claire lives in Winchester, England, with her husband and has two grown-up children.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1
The morning sky lightens, and snow falls on the cottage. It falls on the thatch, concealing the moss and the mouse damage, smoothing out the undulations, filling in the hollows and slips, melting where it touches the bricks of the chimney. It settles on the plants and bare soil in the front garden and forms a perfect mound on top of the rotten gatepost, as though shaped from the inside of a teacup. It hides the roof of the chicken coop, and those of the privy and the old dairy, leaving a dusting across the workbench and floor where the window was broken long ago. In the vegetable garden at the back, the snow slides through the rips in the plastic of the polytunnel, chills the onion sets four inches underground and shrivels the new shoots of the swiss chard. Only the head of the last winter cabbage refuses to succumb, the interior leaves curled green and strong, waiting.
In the high double bed up the left staircase, Dot lies beside her adult daughter, Jeanie, who is gently snoring. Something different about the light in the room has woken Dot and she can’t get back to sleep. She gets out of the bed — floorboards cold, air colder — and puts on her dressing gown and slippers. The dog — Jeanie’s dog — a biscuit-coloured lurcher who sleeps on the landing with her back to the chimney breast, raises her head, enquiring about the early hour as Dot passes, lowering it when she gets no answer.
Downstairs in the kitchen, Dot jabs at the embers in the range with the poker and shoves in a ball of paper, some kindling and a log. There is a pain. Behind her left eye. Between her left eye and her temple. Does the place have a name? She needs to go to the optician, get her eyes checked, but then what? How will she pay for new glasses? She needs to take her prescription to the chemist, but she is worried about the cost. The light is wrong down here, too. Lowing? Owing? Glowing? She touches her temple as though to locate the pain and sees through the curtains, in the gap where they don’t quite meet, that it is snowing. It is the twenty-eighth of April.
Her movements must have roused the dog again because now there is a scratching at the door at the bottom of the left staircase and Dot reaches out to unlatch it. She watches her hand grasping the wrought-iron, the liver spots and crosshatching seeming peculiar, unlike anything she’s seen before: the mechanics of her fingers, the way the skin on her knuckles stretches over bone, bending around the handle. The articulation is alien — the hand of an imposter. The effort of pushing on the tiny plate with her thumb seems impossible, a bodily weariness worse even than when her twins were three months old and didn’t sleep at the same time, or the terrible year after they turned twelve. But with great concentration she presses and the latch lifts. The dog pokes her snout through, the rest of her body following. She whimpers and licks Dot’s left hand where it hangs against her thigh, pushes nose into palm, making the hand swing of its own accord, a pendulum. The pain increases and Dot worries that the dog might wake Jeanie with her whining, Jeanie asleep in the right-hand dip in the double mattress, first made by her husband, Frank, long dead, and on the rare occasions when her children were out of the house, by that other unmentionable-at-home man, who is too long for that old short bed so he cannot stretch out, and then hollowed further by Jeanie even though she is a wisp of a thing and only ate a tiny slice of the Victoria sponge they made for when Dot herself turned seventy last month and had at the little celebration here in the kitchen with Bridget taking telephone pictures of Julius on his fiddle and she on her banjo and Jeanie on the guitar all singing after a drop of port to lubricate the vocal chords Julius always says and how the sensation Dot has now is similar to the way she felt after her third glass clumsy and blurred with her thoughts diffuse dizzily leaving the remains of the cake on the table so that dog naughty stood on her hind legs and yumphed it down and them scolding and laughing until her sides … yurt? Kurt? all her loves but one, there with her, and the dog barking and jumping and barking too excited and noisy like she’d be in the snow waking Julius who sleeps so lightly and stirs at any noise.
All these thoughts and more, which Dot is barely aware of, pass through her mind while her body slows. It is a wet coat she wants to shed like the chickens with their autumn moult. An unresponsive weight. Leaden.
Dot falls back onto the kitchen sofa as though someone has reached out a palm and pushed on her breastbone. The dog sits on her haunches and lowers her head onto Dot’s knee, nudging her hand until she places it between the animal’s ears. And then all thoughts of chickens and children, of birthdays and beds, all thoughts of everything, vanish and are silent.
The worries of seventy years — the money, the infidelity, the small deceits — are cut away, and when she looks at her hand she can no longer tell where she ends and dog begins. They are one substance, enormous and free, as is the sofa, the stone floor, the walls, the cottage thatch, the snow, the sky. Everything connected.
‘Jeanie,’ she calls but hears some other word. She isn’t concerned, she has never felt such love for the world and everything in it. The dog makes a noise that isn’t like any noise a dog would make and backs off, so that Dot is forced to remove her hand from the bony head. She shuffles forward on the sofa, she wants to touch the animal again, put her arms around the dog and fall inside of her. But as Dot leans, she tips, her left foot turning on its side and sliding along the floor. Her balance is upset, and she pitches face-forward, her right hand going out to break the fall, while the other catches under her chest, the finger with her wedding ring pinned beneath her. Dot’s head goes down and her forehead hits the edge of the hearth where a flagstone has always been slightly raised, shifting it so that the companion set which hangs beside the range, falls. A last lucid fragment of Dot’s mind worries that the clatter of the metal pan and brush might shock her daughter’s heart from its regular rhythm, until she remembers that this is the biggest lie of all. The poker, which has fallen too, rolls away under the table, rocks once, twice, and then is still.
Product details
- ASIN : B08LJBZ2NG
- Publisher : Tin House Books (May 18, 2021)
- Publication date : May 18, 2021
- Language : English
- File size : 1357 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 336 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : 1953534171
- Best Sellers Rank: #716,276 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,309 in Psychological Literary Fiction
- #3,351 in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Literary Fiction
- #3,941 in Psychological Fiction (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Claire Fuller is the author of Unsettled Ground (2021), winner of the Costa Novel Award and shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, Bitter Orange (2018), Swimming Lessons (2017), which was shortlisted for the Encore Prize for second novels, and Our Endless Numbered Days (2015) which won the Desmond Elliott Prize for debut fiction. www.clairefuller.co.uk
Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers praise the writing style and character development. They find the characters fully realized and poignant. However, some readers feel the content is depressing and dark, with a plodding pacing. Opinions are mixed on the story quality, with some finding it fascinating and great, while others consider it grim and bleak.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers enjoy the writing style. They appreciate the good writing, characterizations, and language.
"...Her descriptions of the English countryside verge on poetry and her characterizations are full and poignant...." Read more
"...This is such a well-written book and follows the perspective of both Jeanie and Julius as they grieve the loss of their mother and try to put their..." Read more
"...Beautiful writing, tragic story. And while the writing in this was equally beautiful, I struggled to connect with the characters...." Read more
"Claire Fuller is an excellent writer, I have read all her books. They do seem to be on the dark side though. I always get sucked into the characters...." Read more
Customers appreciate the well-developed characters. They find the characterizations full and poignant, and the book shows the strength of the human spirit.
"...of the English countryside verge on poetry and her characterizations are full and poignant...." Read more
"...This is a very character driven book and really gave me quite a bit to think about. I know I will probably think of this book often...." Read more
"...Fuller is a master of the grotesque character type (see the protagonist in “Bitter Orange”!)..." Read more
"...I liked Unsettled Ground because the characters are very real, I felt like I was right there with them feeling their pain & misery...." Read more
Customers have mixed reviews about the story. Some find it fascinating and engaging, with a great plot and writing style. Others feel the story is bleak, depressing, and the ending feels choppy.
"...It gives testimony to the strength of the human spirit and well worth the read." Read more
"...other denizens of their small English village, and some mysteries about the past that unfold, and that is plenty enjoyable!" Read more
"...It was such a depressing story, but I couldn’t care about any of the characters. A lot of the story arc didn’t make sense. Why is all this happening?..." Read more
"I hated for this book to end. The story grabbed me right away and I couldn’t stop reading. This is a new author to..." Read more
Customers find the book's content depressing and grim. They describe it as a dark tale set in rural England, but still satisfying.
"II nearly abandoned this book due to its depressing content. I carried on because I know a bit about RH...." Read more
"...Set in rural England, this tale is sad. Layers of deceit and decades old secrets are uncovered...." Read more
"Too grim for the light hearted but I loved it. Real, old time, country people and their ways, language, family lore." Read more
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Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2021Jeanie and Julius Seeder are peculiar siblings. Born 23 hours apart, they are 51 years old and still live impoverished existences with their widowed mother, Dot, in a rundown thatched cottage in the English countryside. The twins are puerile in terms of their naivety, life experiences, formal education and interactions with others outside of their family. Suddenly, Dot dies of a stroke. How will these child-like adults bury their mother let alone continue to exist without her?
Claire Fuller is an award winning author. Her descriptions of the English countryside verge on poetry and her characterizations are full and poignant. She uses several terms that are of particular British origin, like "wodge, trug and gurns" and that might be off-putting to some readers. Other readers might also find the story of the Seeders too depressing, but in the end, it is transformative.
Jeanie, in particular, evolves from a frightened, sickly girl, to a resourceful woman able to set the course of her own life. Jeanie's love for her dog Maude and care and concern for Julius are palpable. Along the way, painful and joyful truths are revealed that change the course of especially Jeanie's life. It gives testimony to the strength of the human spirit and well worth the read.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2021“It is hard to rewrite your own history.” - Unsettled Ground.
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. Their rented cottage is simultaneously their armor against the world and their sanctuary. Inside its walls they make music, in its garden they grow everything they need for sustenance. But when Dot dies suddenly, threats to their livelihood start raining down. At risk of losing everything, Jeanie and her brother must fight to survive in an increasingly dangerous world as their mother’s secrets unfold, putting everything they thought they knew about their lives at stake.
Firstly, congratulations to this book and its author, Claire Fuller, for being included on the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist! This is such a well-written book and follows the perspective of both Jeanie and Julius as they grieve the loss of their mother and try to put their lives back together again. This isn’t a particularly happy read, and sometimes it was greatly frustrating what the twins have to go through. However, this book highlights themes of poverty, rural living, and a kind of sheltered life that I haven’t experienced in another book before. In fact, the book does take place in modern day, but it was easy to forget this because of the way the characters live and their surroundings. This is a very character driven book and really gave me quite a bit to think about. I know I will probably think of this book often. After reading this, I am eager to pick up some of Claire Fuller’s backlist books as well!
- Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2023I really liked Our Endless Numbered Days. Beautiful writing, tragic story. And while the writing in this was equally beautiful, I struggled to connect with the characters. It was such a depressing story, but I couldn’t care about any of the characters. A lot of the story arc didn’t make sense. Why is all this happening? And for what purpose? What was the point of the musical parts? A miss for me on this one, but will keep this author on my radar.
- Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2021It was with great anticipation that I purchased and started, “Unsettled Ground”, by Claire Fuller, having loved her previous novels!
Fuller is a master of the grotesque character type (see the protagonist in “Bitter Orange”!) and in “Unsettled Ground”, middle-aged twins, Jeanie and Julius Seeder certainly fit that bill. The story opens as their mother, Dot, with whom they still live, dies suddenly. How will these strangely-raised twins adapt? Even Jeanie knows they are “weirdos”.
Turns out that there were a lot of things Dot didn’t tell Jeanie and Julius, and the reader gets to find out along with them. This novel isn’t so much about plot as it is about Jeanie and Julius and the other denizens of their small English village, and some mysteries about the past that unfold, and that is plenty enjoyable!
- Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2021II nearly abandoned this book due to its depressing content. I carried on because I know a bit about RH.
Since my sister also had rheumatic fever as a child, missed lots of school , and graduated with home tutors, I lived with this story. I. Was disappointed that the health of Jeanie, was purely in the mothers mind. The authors leaves many unanswered questions. The end wad a disappointment.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2021Claire Fuller is an excellent writer, I have read all her books. They do seem to be on the dark side though. I always get sucked into the characters. I liked Unsettled Ground because the characters are very real, I felt like I was right there with them feeling their pain & misery. Not for everybody. If you are someone who likes happy feel good books, I wouldn't recommend this book. If you love good writing, read this. I loved the dog! I gave 5 stars for the writing.
- Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2021I enjoy this author's work. However, her subject matter chronicles the grim side of life. I felt incredibly sorry for Jeanie & Julius - 51 year old twins who are left adrift after their mother dies suddenly. Neither are prepared to navigate the world without her. Set in rural England, this tale is sad. Layers of deceit and decades old secrets are uncovered. Fuller's writing, as ever, is incredibly skilled and draws you in. I felt sympathetic for the main characters, even the dog, Maude, was a fully fleshed character, who plucked at my heartstrings. . A rather dark book, but extremely satisfying.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2021I hated for this book to end. The story grabbed me right away and I couldn’t stop reading. This is a new author to
me, I have already explored all others she has written but cannot imagine any of them holding a candle to
unsettled Ground.