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The Dutch House

Nominated for the Women's Prize 2020

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The Dutch House

By: Ann Patchett
Narrated by: Tom Hanks
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Bloomsbury presents The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, read by Tom Hanks.

Next, dive into TOM LAKE – the breath-taking newest novel from Ann Patchett

Lose yourself in the story of a lifetime – the unforgettable Sunday Times bestseller
‘Patchett leads us to a truth that feels like life rather than literature’ Guardian
Nominated for the Women’s Prize 2020

A STORY OF TWO SIBLINGS, THEIR CHILDHOOD HOME, AND A PAST THAT THEY CAN’T LET GO.

Like swallows, like salmon, we were the helpless captives of our migratory patterns. We pretended that what we had lost was the house, not our mother, not our father. We pretended that what we had lost had been taken from us by the person who still lived inside.

In the economic boom following the Second World War, Cyril Conroy's real estate investments take his family from poverty to enormous wealth. With it he buys the Dutch House, a lavish mansion in the Philadelphia suburbs. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.

Danny Conroy grows up in the opulence of the Dutch House. 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 home Andrea, a new stepmother. Though they cannot know it, her arrival to the Dutch House sows the seed of the defining loss of Danny and Maeve’s lives: exiled from the house and tossed back into the poverty from which their family rose, Danny and Maeve have only each other to count on.

‘The best book I’ve read in years’ Rosamund Lupton
‘Her finest novel yet’ Sunday Times
‘The buzz around The Dutch House is totally justified. Her best yet, which is saying something’ John Boyne
‘A masterpiece’ Cathy Rentzenbrink
‘Bliss’ Nigella Lawson Coming of Age Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Women's Fiction Heartfelt
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Critic reviews

Patchett leads us to a truth that feels like life rather than literature
Her finest novel yet
A wonderful hypnotic masterpiece of a novel. The best book I’ve read in years (Rosamund Lupton)
Bliss (Nigella Lawson)
The buzz around The Dutch House is totally justified. Her best yet, which is saying something (John Boyne)
What a spectacular novel. A masterpiece, I’d say (Cathy Rentzenbrink)
A gloriously immersive family saga about lost inheritance
One of my top favourite contemporary writers. I don’t think that there’s a book of hers that I haven’t put down at the end and been haunted by for weeks after
The vicissitudes of life in a step-family unfold over five decades … A moving portrait of an unusual house and the unhappy family living in it
A rare book, the kind you ration, one that grabs you by the heart and brain and pulls you right in (Philippe Sands)
The Dutch House is a novel that assures Patchett, alongside John Irving and Anne Tyler, a place as one of the foremost chroniclers of the burdens of emotional inventory and its central place in American lives (Catherine Taylor)
Indelibly poignant in its long unspooling perspective on family life, The Dutch House brilliantly captures how time undoes all certainties
An intimate and transporting novel … The Dutch House is a novel brimming with pain and tenderness in which Patchett’s gifts as a storyteller are on full display … A searching, exquisitely wrenching novel about family, sacrifice and obsession
One of the most celebrated novelists of our times … But it is her new book, widely billed a one of this autumn’s best new reads, where she truly comes into her own
A family story full of love and pain and insight
Impeccably fine … A thoughtful, quietly profound book
The Dutch House offers … A simultaneous awareness of human fragility and human resilience
As always, Patchett leads us to a truth that feels like life, rather than literature
She uses her signature blend of wry humour, rage and regret in a tale of siblings who cannot escape the shadow of their childhood home
Masterly
An outstanding novel, wryly funny, heart-breakingly sad and entirely engrossing (Eithne Farry)
We’re calling it now: The Dutch House will be the book of the autumn ... Her finest novel yet
Few novelists today combine such a forensic eye with an acute and humane understanding of human nature. I would read Ann Patchett’s shopping list (Jojo Moyes)
Patchett is a master at pacing and detail … The question of what makes a home pervades this gripping book (Erica Wagner)
She rivals Tyler for emotional acuity (Anthony Cummins)
Ann Patchett writes novels that quietly and thoroughly devastate the reader – in a good way. Her new novel is no exception
Patchett well deserves her reputation for compelling novels, and The Dutch House is her most enthralling yet
Wise and funny and unwraps the complexities of human beings with heartbreaking tenderness. I love this book (Renée Knight)
All stars
Most relevant
As a good novel should, The Dutch House, Anne Patchett's first novel for 3 years, keeps you thinking once it has finished. It could even benefit from a second listening to pick up all the nuanced clues evident from the start, the significance of which is appreciated only towards the end.

The Dutch House itself is in some ways the main character. The massive 1920s villa with its marble Vermeer-like checked floors, vast rooms, Delft decorations and vast rooms is acquired by Cyril Conroy in 1946 when the Dutch owners go bankrupt leaving behind the house, crammed with its treasures. By the end of the novel, generations have grown, and the hosue remains as powerful as ever.

Brimming with pride, Cyril displays the mansion to his new wife, Elna. She hates it, can't bear the willing house servants, the children's nanny, the opulence of it. Apparently saintly and ascetic, she abandons her children, Danny and his adored elder sister Maeve to devote herself to serving the poor in India.The children believe she is dead.

Cyril brings a woman into the household: Andrea, an avaricious young woman who, like Cyril, dislikes children. Cyril marries her, not because he loves her, but because she 'lingered like a virus' and he hadn't the strength to get rid of her. As the subsequent complex sagas of Danny and Maeve unfold in multi-layered realism, the fairy tale elements become more obvious: the wicked stepmother; the forbidding house of mysteries; a lost mother. Other themes are also explored, most importantly the complex contradictory quality of sainthood (why are saints never saints to their families?), and of the possibiloty of restoration and forgiveness.

The ending takes the fairy tale element too far, I think - just too neat and unlikely - the realism suddenly vanishes. But overall this is a satisfyingly deep excursion into the adult life-paths of children blighted by the mis-judgements and errors of others.

The story is told by Danny Conroy and Tom Hanks makes a very good, convincing job of sounding wholly. real.

Recommended.

Can you forgive her?

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The fact that Tom Hanks was the narrator was a recommendation in itself as I presume he can be very choosy about the projects with which he is involved. The Dutch House is about a dysfunctional family that spans 30/40 years and includes an absent mother, a less than perceptive father and the non-melding of two families when a step mother arrives plus an extraordinary house. But saying that doesn't really tell you what lies at the heart of the story - forgiveness, and how to learn how to forgive. The story is told from the point of view of the younger brother but it is the women characters that are the most important. They are the ones who make decisions, make mistakes, do things which seem unforgivable and are also the ones who are the first learn how to forgive and let go. There's no big drama: When people die it is from natural causes. When they are cruel is because of selfishness or the simple inability to see...our own everyday sins. I loved it - my book of the year so far and I doubt if anything will knock it off its perch.

My book of the year: doubt anything will better it

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Beautiful story and Tom Hanks. I have totally loved this book its been so relaxing to listen to with the smooth tones of TH. I missed it when it was over, always an indication of a great read.

Perfect combination ........

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When you cry when a book comes to an end, you know it touched you. I cried! Such a beautiful portrayal of the love and relationship between a sister and her brother, so we’ll read by Tom Hanks. Highly recommend.

Beautiful

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A most intriguing novel from beginning to end, well constructed and beautifully written. A classic for the future.

Brilliant

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