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Dutch House: Longlisted for the Women’s Prize 2020

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Danny Conroy grows up in the Dutch House, a lavish folly in small-town Pennsylvania taken on by his property developer father. Though his father is distant and his mother is absent, Danny has his beloved sister Maeve: Maeve, with her wall of black hair, her delicacy, her brilliance. Life is comfortable and coherent, played out under the watchful eyes of the house’s former owners in the frames of their oil paintings, or under the cover of the draperies around the window seat in Maeve’s room. Then one day their father brings Andrea home: Andrea, small and neat, a dark hat no bigger than a saucer pinned over a twist of her fair hair. Though they cannot know it, Andrea’s advent to the Dutch House sows the seed of the defining loss of Danny and Maeve’s lives.

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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

Read a sample here

Additional information

Weight 0.246 kg
Dimensions 19.8 × 12.9 × 2.8 cm
Author

Publisher
Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

337

Language

English

Edition

1st paperback ed

Dewey

813.6 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K