Winner of the 2021 Costa Novel Award Finalist for the Women's Prize in Fiction Named a Best Book of the Month by Entertainment Weekly, PopSugar, Bustle, Chicago Review of Books , PureWow, a Best Book of Summer by Daily Beast and a Good Housekeeping Best Book of 2021 “Full of dramatic twists and turns right up until its moving, beautiful end.” ―NPR Books At fifty-one years old, twins Jeanie and Julius still live with their mother, Dot, in rural isolation in the English countryside. The cottage they have shared their entire lives is their only protection against the modernizing world around them. Inside its walls, they make music, and in its garden, they grow everything they need to survive. To an outsider, it looks like poverty; to them, it is home. But when Dot dies unexpectedly, the world they’ve so carefully created begins to fall apart. The cottage they love, and the security it offered, is taken back by their landlord, exposing the twins to harsh truths and even harsher realities. Seeing a new future, Julius becomes torn between the loyalty he feels towards his sister and his desire for independence, while Jeanie struggles to find work and a home for them both. And just when it seems there might be a way forward, a series of startling secrets from their mother’s past come to the surface, forcing the twins to question who they are, and everything they know of their family’s history. In Unsettled Ground , award-winning author Claire Fuller masterfully builds a tale of sacrifice and hope, of homelessness and hardship, of love and survival, in which two marginalized and remarkable people uncover long-held family secrets and, in their own way, repair, recover, and begin again. [Fuller's] absorbing novel unsettles us with its fine evocation of life's fragility while grounding us in the healing powers of love, loyalty and nature's bounty.-- "Independent (IRE)" A book like Unsettled Ground is why we read. . . . Written with tenderness and beauty, Unsettled Ground is not to be missed.--Sherri Gallentine, Vroman's Bookstore, BuzzFeed Best Books of Spring as Recommended by Booksellers A darkly poignant novel about an unusual family.-- "Texas Public Radio" A gorgeously written and moving portrait of a family struggling against time.--Lucy Tan, author of What We Were Promised A page-turner. . . . reflecting the humble beauty of country life in every page, Unsettled Ground will appeal to a wide array of readers.-- "Harvard Review" A quiet tale of loss and survival.-- "Good Housekeeping" A simple but powerful story of rural poverty, sibling relationships and, perhaps above all, resilience.-- "PureWow" A story full of secrets in which nothing is quite as it seems.-- "New Books Network Podcast" A winner.-- "The Center for Fiction" Ambitious.-- "The TLS" An intriguing premise made more so by the paucity of novels featuring vulnerable older adults.-- "Financial Times" An intriguing, moving novel that will make you question assumptions you have about modern life.--Tracy Chevalier An unnerving and emotional novel of family secrets, vulnerability and resilience.-- "Shelf Awareness" Another sly psychological treat from Claire Fuller, who just keeps on getting better with each book.--Laline Paull, author of The Ice Beautiful and intriguing.-- "Across the Pond Podcast" 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 After the End Devastatingly haunting.-- "Booklist, Starred Review" Engrossing.-- "Entertainment Weekly" Evocative. . . . Fuller builds suspense over the twins' fate and ends with a brilliant twist.-- "Publishers Weekly" Fascinating.-- "The Star (Canada)" Fuller explores the painful realities of poverty and social isolation with immense sensitivity in this multilayered and emotionally astute novel.-- "The Guardian" Fuller has created a propulsive story that readers can't help but get caught up in.-- "Necessary Fiction" Fuller is a master of building suspense. . . . At once unsettling and hopeful, her book checks all the boxes of an engrossing mystery.-- "Kirkus Reviews" 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 If you're a reader who lives for contemplative storytelling and perfectly wrought characters, this author is for you.-- "BookPage" One mystery after another arises and two siblings who have been left behind by the modern world face changes both gentle and profound.-- "The Daily Beast" Powerful. . . . fascinating.-- "BookRiot" Prepare for an experience of the English countryside that's somewhat at odds with its typically idyllic depiction. . . . As the title suggests, at each turn there's something new and unexpected.-- "Bookmarks" Rapturous.-- "The San