The Dutch House: Nominated for the Women's Prize 2020 (Bloomsbury Publishing) - Softcover

Patchett, Ann

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1526614979 ISBN 13: 9781526614971

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020

Synopsis

An unforgettably powerful new novel of the indelible bond between two siblings, the house of their childhood, and a past that will not let them go - from the Number One New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth and Bel Canto

'The book of the autumn. The American author of Commonwealth (brilliant) and Bel Canto (even better) releases perhaps her finest novel yet' - Sunday Times

'The buzz around The Dutch House is totally justified. Her best yet, which is saying something' - John Boyne

"'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. Life is coherent, played 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. The siblings are drawn back time and again to the place they can never enter, knocking in vain on the locked door of the past. For behind the mystery of their own exile is that of their mother's: an absence more powerful than any presence they have known.

Told with Ann Patchett's inimitable blend of humour, rage and heartbreak, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale and story of a paradise lost; of the powerful bonds of place and time that magnetize and repel us for our whole lives.

About this title

Review:

A wonderful hypnotic masterpiece of a novel. The best book I've read in years (Rosamund Lupton)

Ann Patchett writes novels that quietly and thoroughly devastate the reader - in a good way. Her new novel is no exception (Red)

What a spectacular novel. A masterpiece, I'd say (Cathy Rentzenbrink)

Wise and funny and unwraps the complexities of human beings with heartbreaking tenderness. I love this book (Renée Knight)

Bliss (Nigella Lawson)

The buzz around The Dutch House is totally justified. Her best yet, which is saying something (John Boyne)

If there's a better, more poignant or involving novel than The Dutch House published this year, I will be very, very surprised (Andrew Holgate)

Praise for Commonwealth: 'Dazzling (Sunday Times)

Patchett blends wisdom and humanity jointly with the icy forensic gaze of someone not afraid to expose the frailties of human behaviour ... Read it (Jojo Moyes)

Patchett writes excellently and seemingly artlessly (Daily Mail)

Book Description:

A masterpiece from the Orange Prize-winning, New York Times number one bestselling author of Commonwealth and Bel Canto: a story of love, family, sacrifice, and the power of place

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Publication date: 2020
• ISBN 10: 1526614979
• ISBN 13: 9781526614971
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352