The Dutch House

The new novel by American writer Ann Patchett resembles a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, expanded into 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 Hooibergs. The Dutch House itself is not haunted by ghosts, but anyone 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.

For Danny and Maeve, this is all there is: a father who left this world too soon, a mother who long ago became a memory, a stepmother who seems to have emerged from a nightmarish dream, and the ominous family mansion. There is also adult life, which remains elusive: the curse of childhood, the mark of orphanhood, the impossibility of breaking once-formed bonds. "The Dutch House" is a story about the triumph of love over evil. A triumph tainted by 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 at all.

And if there was — then who?