If you’ve ever looked at the world and asked yourself, ‘What the hell just happened?’ you’ll enjoy ‘Unsheltered’ by Barbara Kingsolver, one of my favourite fiction writers.
Set in Vineland, New Jersey, in 2016, we meet Willa Knox, a woman who’s just lost her job and whose house is literally crumbling around her. Meanwhile an egotistical, misogynist bully is about to be elected President of the nation.
“How could two hardworking people do everything right in life,” Willa asks, “and end up destitute?”
We also meet Thatcher Greenwood and Mary Treat, in the same place 150 years earlier, scientists and kindred spirits, who battle the status quo in their small town.
‘Unsheltered’ is an amusing and engaging portrait of bewilderment. Of ordinary life becoming impossible. It depicts the fear of those who still have something to lose; and the sad realisation that doing the right thing, doesn’t make them right. But sometimes the path of loss leads to hope.
Kingsolver accurately measures the political and emotional pulse of our times and renders it beautifully on the page.
It’s been, for me, a year of delving into fiction and the discovery of new voices whose works I’ll now avidly await. It’s also been a time of re-immersion into writers whose past work I’ve admired. Interestingly, both in my fiction and non-fiction reading, it’s been mainly an American year. And most, but not all, of the writers have been women.
Three novels that I loved, discovered while browsing through Basement Books in the Central Station pedestrian tunnel, were ‘The Cookbook Collector’ by Allegra Goodman, a luscious tale about two very opposite sisters and how they navigate love, death and reality; ‘The Garden of Small Beginnings’ by Abbi Waxman, a very funny book about taking the risk to love and hope, and get your hands dirty again, after a terrible tragedy; and the sensual and spell binding, ‘Breath’ by Tim Winton: a tale of sex, the wildness of adolescence, and the spiritual pull of the surf.
Another book that I spent a lot of time with, and that spilled its influence into my writing was an Australian book, although not entirely Australian in content, ‘A Place on Earth: An anthology of Nature Writing from Australia and North America’ edited by Mark Tredinnick. It’s a varied and sublime collection of pieces about places, both wild and the urban, and the magic to be found in our communion with landscape.
And ‘Thistles’ by Australian playwright Noelle Janaczewska is the book I intend to enjoy over these last days of 2018. It promises to be a humane and eclectic curio of place, plants, literature and the exploration of what it is to be ‘home’.
sage somethymes 
I’ve done a bit of reading too this year. A lot more than any other year. My goodreads account says I’ve read 21 books. I had aimed for 12 books and have surpassed it.
I like the sound of what you’ve read. I’ll add them to my to read list. 👌
A year when you read twice as many books as you planned to is a very good year indeed!
All the best for the new year and wishing you some more wonderful reading over the summer.
Dxx