The Dutch House

The new novel by American writer Ann Patchett resembles a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, expanded to the scale of a family epic. The story of the main characters, Danny Conroy and his sister Maeve, spans the entire second half of the 20th century, and their fates are tragically intertwined with the Dutch House — a mansion in eastern Pennsylvania that once belonged to the ruined dynasty of Dutch magnates, the Van Hooibqueeks. The Dutch House itself is not inhabited by ghosts, but everyone who crosses its threshold, in a sense, becomes a ghost of the house — wherever they may go afterward, wherever they may live later, they carry this image with them everywhere.

Danny and Maeve have only this: a father who left this life too soon, a mother who has long since turned into a memory, a stepmother seemingly emerged from a nightmare, and the ominous family mansion. Also, an adult life that never seems to begin: the curse of childhood, the seal of orphanhood, the impossibility of breaking the bonds that have formed. "The Dutch House" is a story about the triumph of love over evil. A triumph entangled in loss and largely ambiguous, because ultimately the reader must figure out for themselves whose side they are on and whether there was a villain here. And if there was — then who?