The Dutch House

As World War II nears its end, Cyril Conroy parlays one clever investment into a property empire and buys the Dutch House, an opulent furnished mansion outside Philadelphia, meaning to delight his wife, Elna. She loathes it, and while the children are small she leaves, at first for spells and then for good. Danny and his elder sister, Maeve, are raised by the housekeepers and a cold father until a stepmother moves in, and after further misfortune she expels them from the house. Back in the poverty their parents once fled, the two have only each other. Danny narrates their lives over five decades, as brother and sister keep circling back to the house and what was taken from them, until they must confront those who abandoned them.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Family (assigned by AI)

Set in

United States, from the 1940s, over five decades

First published

2019

Author's age

56 when first published

ISBN

9780062963673 (Harper, United States)

9781526614971 (Bloomsbury Publishing, United Kingdom)

9780062963680 (Harper Perennial, United States)

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Wikidata