Hugh's Reviews > Unsettled Ground

Shortlisted for the Women's Prize 2020

A book for anyone who has a too sentimental view of life in the British countryside - Fuller's vision is most realistic where it is furthest from rural idyll.

The story opens with a death. Dot has been scraping a living in a run-down cottage on the edge of a farm since the death of her husband, and her 51-year old twins Jeanie and Julius still live there too - Jeanie helps with running the house and growing vegetables, her ambition limited after being told in childhood that she has a weak heart, and Julius is a casual labourer and dreamer. When Dot dies suddenly after a stroke, the twins have to fend for themselves almost unprepared, as Dot has not told them enough about what underpins their living arrangements.

Most of the story is told in the third person from the perspective of Jeanie, as everything her life depends on is taken from her in a series of horrific episodes - first they find that Dot has left them no money, so they can't afford to have her decently buried, then their farmer landlord has them evicted for non-payment of rent they believed they did not owe, and they are forced to move to a dilapidated old caravan on a patch of common woodland, where they are defenceless against local troublemakers.

(view spoiler)[Jeanie's troubles reach a nadir when Julius is left paralysed after being shot in the dark, but the final part set a year later shows her achieving a tentative state of fulfilment. (hide spoiler)]

Fuller's command of her story is impressive, and for all of the dark subject matter there is plenty to enjoy in the book, particularly its musical elements. I did feel that the ending was a little hard to believe after the rest of the book, but without it the story might be too dark for many readers to stomach.