The Dutch House: A Read with Jenna Pick

by Ann Patchett

'Ann Patchett just gets better and better ... With more than a nod to Henry James , The Dutch House is quietly devastating, often mysterious and rather beautiful in its effortlessly readable melancholy' Observer

Longlisted for the Women's Prize 2020

*The Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller and a 'Book of the Year' 2019*

Selected as Book of the Year in The Times, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Washington Post, Herald and Good Housekeeping

A heart-wrenching new novel of the unbreakable bond between a brother and sister, their childhood home, and a past that will not let them go - from the Number One New York Times bestselling author of Bel Canto and Commonwealth

"'Do you think it's possible to ever see the past as it actually was?' I asked my sister. We were sitting in her car, parked in front of the Dutch House in the broad daylight of early summer."

Danny Conroy grows up in the Dutch House, a lavish mansion. Though his father is distant and his mother is absent, Danny has his beloved sister Maeve: Maeve, with her wall of black hair, her wit, her brilliance. The siblings grow and change as life plays out under the watchful eyes of the house's former owners, in the frames of their oil paintings.

Then one day their father brings Andrea home. Though they cannot know it, her arrival to the Dutch House sows the seed of the defining loss of Danny and Maeve's lives...

Told with Ann Patchett's inimitable blend of humour, rage and heartbreak, The Dutch House is a book for our times; of family, love, loss, and the powerful bonds of place and time that magnetize and repel us for our whole lives.
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Reviews for The Dutch House:
'The book of the autumn ... Her finest novel yet' Sunday Times
'A wonderful hypnotic masterpiece of a novel. The best book I've read in years' Rosamund Lupton
'What a spectacular novel. A masterpiece, I'd say' Cathy Rentzenbrink
'Indelibly poignant' Observer
'One of my top favourite contemporary writers. There isn't a book of hers that I haven't put down at the end and been haunted by for weeks after' Gillian Anderson
'The buzz around The Dutch House is totally justified. Her best yet, which is saying something' John Boyne

• ISBN10: 0062963678
• ISBN13: 9780062963673
• Publish Date: 24 September 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

This is the first Ann Patchett book I’ve read and I liked the writing and generally liked the book. I’m giving it 3.5 stars because I didn’t love any of the characters. I liked Maeve and Danny and thought their relationship was sweet, but that was it. I didn’t care for any of the other women, especially Andrea. I just felt sad reading this whole book and even though I liked the ending - somewhat, it fell a little flat for me over all. I think I’m learning that purely character driven books may not be what I love. I liked it, I’m glad I read it but I just didn’t love.