Inside its walls, they make music, and in its garden, they grow everything they need to survive.

The cottage they have shared their entire lives is their only protection against the modernizing world around them. Whilst this book was unsettling – for reasons both good and bad – it did not leave a lasting impression.Unsettled Ground Claire Fuller € 14.99 If ordered before 12:00h, this title will be in our store within 24 hours.Īt fifty-one years old, twins Jeanie and Julius still live with their mother, Dot, in rural isolation in the English countryside. The descriptions of nature, coupled with Fuller’s interleaving of folk song lyrics, make the novel atmospheric and somewhat magical. Fuller pays close attention to the lushness of nature, making it easy to visualise Jeanie’s and Julius’s cottage – you can almost smell the earth of their garden and the surrounding countryside. Unsettled Ground’s one saving grace is Fuller’s rich descriptions of nature and rural England. There is some crying, but it feels ornamental – there is a certain emotional depth missing here. Even when they find the body of their dead mother, slumped over the hearth, Jeanie and Julius do not seem overly bothered. Their characters feel somewhat two-dimensional and undeveloped, for a novel that is character rather than plot-driven. Instead of sympathy for the twins, you feel indifference. Dot’s secrets are not as ‘big’ as they are made out to be, making the book feel, on the whole, slightly insignificant.Īdditionally, the plot often feels slow, dragged out by far too many long-winded references to Jeanie’s and Julius’s money troubles. However, once the truth is laid bare, you are left feeling underwhelmed, cheated, and a little bit disappointed. From the very first page, Fuller leaves you eager to discover the truth behind Dot’s secrets.

Fuller is, undoubtedly, a master at building suspense. Unfortunately, Unsettled Ground fails to live up to its intriguing premise. It is also an exploration of poverty, community, and survival. However, this is not a typical mystery novel. But when Dot dies of a stroke, their way of life is threatened as her secrets begin to unravel. They grow their own food, refuse to use banks, preferring instead to stash their money away in cubbyholes, and have an overall distrust of ‘civilisation’. At 51 years old, they live with their mother Dot in rural England, disconnected from the modern world. Twins Jeanie and Julius are described as ‘unnatural’. Longlisted for the 2021 Women’s Prize, Unsettled Ground is Claire Fuller’s fourth novel.

Claire fuller unsettled ground