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. Their dubious shelter is also the only option for a disabled father-in-law and an exasperating, free-spirited daughter.

The magazine where Willa worked has folded the college where her husband had tenure has closed. 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. 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. 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. “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

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

Unsheltered book review