Unsettled Ground: Winner of the Costa Novel Award 2021

(Paperback)

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Description

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. At 51 years old, they still live with their mother, Dot, in rural isolation and poverty. Their rented cottage is simultaneously their armour against the world and their sanctuary. Inside its walls they make music, in its garden they grow (and sometimes kill) 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 cruel and unyielding world as their mother's secrets unfold, putting everything they thought they knew about their lives at stake. This 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.

Reviews

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 *
Dark, brilliantly observed and ultimately a tale of love winning the day. * The Sunday Telegraph *
An intriguing, moving novel that will make you question assumptions you have about modern life * Tracy Chevalier, author of 'A Single Thread' *
Superb...deservedly longlisted for this year's Women's Prize for Fiction * Daily Mail *
A moving portrait of a family struggling against time. This book is ultimately about redemption-about the unexpected importance of neighbours, lovers, and friends, and the ways in which we can re-envision our lives for the better * Lucy Tan, author of What We Were Promised *
So sharply, so utterly brilliant that I found myself holding my breath while reading it, dazzled by Fuller's mastery and precision. * Lauren Groff, author of 'Fates and Furies' *
With sensitivity and intelligence, Fuller unpicks the relentless complexity of the modern world * The Guardian *
'The way she writes (with empathy but never sentimentality) moves my heart' * Elizabeth Day, author of Magpie *
Fuller is excellent at description, and capturing the twins' awkward interactions with the world. The fate of the illiterate and weak-hearted Jeanie once she loses everything that is safe is particularly unsettling * The Sunday Times *
It's merciless in its observation of casual cruelty and merciful in its observation of casual kindness and family love * Richard Curtis *
Unsettled Ground is another sly psychological treat from Claire Fuller, who just keeps on getting better with each book -- Laline Paull
These memorable characters will worm their way into your head and heart and the descriptions of the landscape are beautiful. * Jo Finney, Good Housekeeping *
An atmospheric thriller that's both heartbreaking and heartwarming * Red *
Tender, unusual... these memorable characters will work their way into your head and your heart * Good Housekeeping *
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
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 Hostage
Unsettled Ground shares with Fuller's previous works themes of closely guarded family secrets and homes built upon shaky foundations * Financial Times *
This literary thriller is as moving and poignant as it is compelling * Express *
These memorable characters will worm their way into your head and heart the descriptions of the landscape are beautiful * Good Housekeeping *

Author Bio

Claire Fuller was born in Oxfordshire, England, in 1967. She gained a degree in sculpture from Winchester School of Art, but went on to have a long career in marketing and didn't start writing until she was forty. She has written three previous novels- Our Endless Numbered Days, which won the Desmond Elliott Prize, Swimming Lessons, which was shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award, and Bitter Orange. Her most recent novel Unsettled Ground was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2021. She has an MA in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Winchester and lives in Hampshire with her husband.