About the Author

Barbara Kingsolver is the author of nine bestselling works of fiction, including the novels, Flight Behavior, The Lacuna, The Poisonwood Bible, Animal Dreams, and The Bean Trees, as well as books of poetry, essays, and creative nonfiction. Her work of narrative nonfiction is the enormously influential bestseller Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Kingsolver's work has been translated into more than twenty languages and has earned literary awards and a devoted readership at home and abroad. She was awarded the National Humanities Medal, our country's highest honor for service through the arts, as well as the prestigious Dayton Literary Peace Prize for her body of work. She lives with her family on a farm in southern Appalachia.

Reviews

"Unsheltered is a skillful blend of fact and fiction told in alternating chapters... It's a winner all the way...an absolute giant of a book." --New York Journal of Books

"Barbara Kingsolver does something amazing in her new novel...Uncovering and appreciating the connections between the two stories, historical and contemporary, is the best reason to read the book...Both stories are compelling as Thatcher and Willa lead their families during dangerously uncertain times." --Associated Press

"Riveting...A tour de force of fiction...about this dynamic conflict between individual expression and communal belonging...One of the most magical parts of UNSHELTERED is how Kingsolver skillfully blends her two narratives into one unified tale, with past and present repeatedly mirroring each other." --BookPage

"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, 15 Best Books of 2018

"Kingsolver's dual narrative works beautifully. By giving us a family and a world teetering on the brink in 2016, and conveying a different but connected type of 19th-century teetering, Kingsolver creates a sense...that as humans we're inevitably connected through the possibility of collapse, whether it's the collapse of our houses, our bodies, logic, the social order or earth itself...In this engaged and absorbing novel, the two narratives reflect each other, reminding us of the dependability and adaptiveness of our drive toward survival."--Meg Wolitzer, New York Times Book Review

"Utterly captivating...Keenly observed and thought-provoking...Kingsolver's much-demonstrated talent for developing truly believable characters is, once again, on full display...Perhaps, more importantly, it's the characters' hardscrabble circumstances--especially in the modern story--that resonate right down to the bone."--San Francisco Chronicle

"I felt almost bereft closing the cover on this book... With a spellbinding narrative and its exquisitely accurate evocation of two eras, Barbara Kingsolver's novel is itself a shelter of sorts. One doesn't want to leave it."--Helen Klein Ross, Wall Street Journal

"A return to the more ambitious, grand scale of novels such as The Lacuna and The Poisonwood Bible...A lively and vividly peopled novel of ideas...Clear throughout the novel is a tension between self-reliance and interdependence."--The Guardian (feature)

"Sophisticated storytelling, compelling characters and sharp humor...Kingsolver is a writer who can help us understand and navigate the chaos of these times."--Minneapolis Star Tribune

"UNSHELTERED's title suggests a roof gone missing. But it's also a resonant call to be more alert to our social predicaments, to 'stand in the clear light of day.'"--USA Today

"Barbara Kingsolver's latest novel, Unsheltered, will make you weep...But Kingsolver is also downright hilarious...Unsheltered is also a sociopolitical novel tackling real-world issues, especially how we humans navigate profound changes that threaten to unmoor us."--O, the Oprah Magazine

"Kingsolver's meticulously observed, elegantly structured novel unites social commentary with gripping storytelling...Containing both a rich story and a provocative depiction of times that shake the shelter of familiar beliefs, this novel shows Kingsolver at the top of her game."--Publishers Weekly (Boxed and Starred review)

"Nuanced and convincing...Engrossing."--Jane Ciabattari, BBC News "Preview"

"Powerful."--Book Riot

"As always, Kingsolver gives readers plenty to think about. Her warm humanism coupled with an unabashed point of view make her a fine 21st-century exponent of the honorable tradition of politically engaged fiction."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Exceptionally involving and rewarding...There is much to delight in and think about while reveling in Kingsolver's vital characters, quicksilver dialogue, intimate moments, dramatic showdowns, and lushly realized milieus...An enveloping, tender, witty, and awakening novel of love and trauma, family and survival, moral dilemmas and intellectual challenges..."--Booklist (starred review)