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.

Major characters

21st century:
  • Willa Knox – journalist
  • Iano Tavoularis – PhD in political science, her husband
  • Tig – 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 – 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 :
  • Thatcher Greenwood – BS in Biology
  • Rose – his wife
  • Mary Treat – neighbor ; 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

Writing in the The [New York Times|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."