A Good Read

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

Isn't that a beautiful cover picture. It's a portrait that appears in the book. Ann Pratchett owns the original painting which was painted by a friend of hers in just four days. I would like to buy a copy of it, but I don’t think it has been put into commercial print.

Set over the course of five decades the novel tells the story of siblings Maeve and her younger brother Danny, whose world is torn apart when their mother leaves them, and they are cast out of their childhood home, a suburban Philadelphia mansion.

At the end of the Second World War their father Cyril Conroy combined luck and a shrewd investment to start a real estate business that he built into an empire. He bought the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs of Philadelphia for his wife Elna. She never really liked the huge mansion though. She left, abandoning her children in favour of doing good work for people in need. Their father eventually married Andrea but when he died, aged only 53 Andrea gained control of the business and the house for herself and her two daughters, and forced Maeve and Danny to move out. They grew up, had lives, but could never get the Dutch house out of their lives. They regularly visited, just sitting in the car watching for any activity around or inside. Years passed and still they visited the house. Then their mother returned.

It's a beautiful story. The past and future are combined with happiness, sadness, loss, resentment, sibling devotion and childhood memories.

I loved this story and thoroughly recommend it.

∼ Happy Reading∼ 

Polly x