Unsheltered was published by HarperCollins in 2018. Two narrative strands occupy the same house at 591 Landis Avenue in Vineland, New Jersey — a planned utopian community founded in 1861.
In the 1870s, Thatcher Greenwood is a science teacher newly arrived in Vineland who befriends Mary Treat, a real historical figure — a naturalist who corresponded with Darwin and whose work on carnivorous plants contributed to evolutionary theory. Thatcher tries to teach evolutionary science in a community founded on temperance idealism but hostile to ideas that threaten its founding myths. His house is literally falling apart — built by the utopian community’s founder using experimental construction methods that have failed.
In the 2010s, Willa Knox is a journalist whose career was destroyed by the collapse of print media. She lives in the same house (now condemned) with her dying father-in-law, her unemployed husband, her Occupy Wall Street-activist son, and his undocumented girlfriend and baby. Every institution Willa trusted — the economy, the housing market, the career ladder, the social safety net — has collapsed.
Collecting Unsheltered
First edition (HarperCollins, New York, 2018): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in jacket: $10–$20
- Signed first: $25–$50