Unsheltered, by Barbara Kingsolver

The Vineland district of New Jersey was founded in the nineteenth century as a supposedly utopian community by a benevolent dictator. Unsheltered parallels the stories of present day journalist Willa Knox and 1870s teacher Thatcher Greenwood, who share far more than a crumbling, poorly built house they cannot afford to fix. Insecure employment and burdensome dependent in-laws are the hallmarks of both their lives. Willa also has troublesome adult children, while Thatcher battles for scientific truth in guiding the hearts and minds of his students. In 1870 the politics are local and personal, whereas in the modern day they are national and general, but the results are the same. Again there are strong parallels with the wilful ignorance of science leading to destruction and blind faith in a demagogue who is only interested in his own gain. Thatcher finds solace in his scholarly neighbour Mary Treat – a satisfying friendship based on mutual respect and shared interests, in contrast to his marriage, which started with physical attraction but had no substance. Echoes of Dr Lydgate in Middlemarch are confirmed by mention of George Eliot in the acknowledgements. Willa has a good and loving marriage, also based on physical attraction but built into a strong partnership over the years. These relationships sustain them in their troubles. The last few words of each chapter become the title of the next, a neat trick that forges a link between the two eras stronger than the address they share. Both stories have people trying to do the right thing by their families and working around a system stacked against them and they come together at the end with some signs of hope.