Brilliant writing and atmosphere, with some outstanding observations and characterisation. 

It's only a four star rather than a five because I felt it needed more structure and forward momentum, particularly in the second half. I also didn't feel that Elna's departure was ever fully or satisfyingly explained, which given that it was the driving force of the book, felt like a lack.

Ann Patchett’s novels are all about the characters and The Dutch House is no exception. I loved the relationship between Maeve and Danny. the storyline is both shocking but sensitive.

A house can be so much more than just bricks and mortar. It can define and shape those who live in it. Such a house is The Dutch House. Built by a successful Dutch tobacco importer it uniquely designed, full of amazing décor and furniture, and filled with light by its huge windows. Taken over lock, stock and barrel by the bank during the recession it is purchased, for a bargain price, by Danny and Maeve's father - a self made property developer. From the day he presents his purchase, as a surprise, to his wife as their new home, the Dutch house upsets the family balance.
 Years later Maeve and Danny find themselves with a new stepmother, Andrea. Little can they know just what an impact Andrea shall have on their lives but, with two children of her own, she quickly makes her hostility to Maeve and Danny very clear. When Maeve goes to college and moves into a flat she takes on the role of both mother and protector to Danny. And so when their father suddenly dies, and Andrea insists he leave, Danny moves in with Maeve. Andrea stays on in the Dutch House and effectively disinherits them. From here on we follow the careers and lives of Maeve and Danny and how, throughout those lives, they are repeatedly drawn back to the Dutch house. They sit outside in their car and go over their time there, forever trying to suss out how matters turned out as they did. Anne Patchett draws the reader so deeply into this tale and the characters, that the twists and turns are all totally believable. But Dutch House still has surprises up its sleeve and the people who end up living there together could never have been predicted at the outset of this story . Nor could the reader have guessed at their relationship. It is both heart-breaking and uplifting. A beautifully crafted story written with coherence and fluency. If you enjoy family sagas and surprises this is a novel you have to read.

A beautiful, profound, deeply moving story of love in all it's forms. Danny is the younger brother of Maeve who takes over a nurturing role of him when their Mother leaves the family home, the Dutch House. when he is very small and she is only ten.  The Dutch House is central to the story, a wonderful place  full of history and wonderful things but a house that has a very different effect on different people. But most of all the story is about love, where loyalties lie and what love is acceptable.  It isn't often that a relationship between brother and sister is so richly told and I found the use of Danny as the narrator really interesting.  Apart from his father, all the strong characters are women and it is interesting to see how Danny weaves through these relationships.  Every word is measured and the tale is beautifully told, full of warmth, heart-ache and life.  I loved it, cried at the end unexpectedly, missed it when it ended.

For me, the overwhelming themes of this novel are self-determination (for Danny and Maeve, and especially where Elna is concerned though I hesitate to elaborate for fear of spoiling the story for others) and the bond between siblings that both sustains and threatens to harm them both.  Deprived at a young age of the privilege and luxury they were born into, Danny and his sister Maeve are forced to fend for themselves, eventually moving to New York but retaining strong ties to Philadelphia and the looming presence of their childhood home, the Dutch House.  Maeve in particular who, a decade older than Danny, can remember their earlier lives, their father and their absent mother more clearly, obsesses for decades over the past and the calamity that exiled them.  She decides her role in life is to care for Danny, pushing him in the direction she thinks best for them both and putting aside ambition for herself.  Their relationship is central to them both.  Danny goes along with her plans but yearns for a different life.  We follow their paths over many years to a superbly poignant conclusion.  

I am a huge fan of Ann Patchett’s writing.  All the books I’ve read from her extensive back catalogue have been very different, though this one bears most resemblance to ‘Commonwealth’.  Characters are key, especially here.  Maeve is a terrific creation - brave, funny and utterly determined, if blinkered for most of the novel.  Danny’s growing up is a journey I enjoyed very much.  A couple of examples:

‘That night in my sister’s bed I stared at the ceiling and felt the true loss of our father.  Not his money or his house, but the man I sat next to in the car.  He had protected me from the world so completely that I had no idea what the world was capable of.  I had never thought about him as a child.  I had never asked him about the war.  I had only seen him as my father, and as my father I had judged him.’

‘There are a few times in life when you leap up and the past that you’d been standing on falls away behind you, and the future you mean to land on is not yet in place, and for a moment you’re suspended, knowing nothing and no one, not even yourself.’

A great story that just flowed from the page, so beautifully written, and much food for thought here.  I’ve no hesitation recommending it.

Ann Patchett at her best! I loved this book, it was great. I'm a fan of the author, and I'm happy to say this book is stunning inside out. 
She's the queen of contemporary family dramas, and the Dutch House didn't disappoint. The design and the title of the book is even brilliant. You see the girl on cover and think 'who is she?, is she the one in the Dutch house? Is she Dutch, is it set in Netherlands?' All these questions spark, not even opening the first page of the book. 
The story was so well woven, mysterious, dramatic and engaging. Of course it revolves around a family, Patchett's signature. There's also a house and all the events are linked to this house. We follow Danny, who grows up in The Dutch House with his sister Mauve. His father is a rich man and he bought this magnificent house as a gift to his wife. But, where is the wife and the mother? So, we start to learn more about the house and this family. 
These 2 siblings are excellently created that all we can do it to take our hats off to Patchett. They were quite different and their relationship was really interesting to follow. Eventually, they were left to each other without a mother, and they slowly discover what's the secret and history of the house. The end, OMG, that end was excellent. Until there, I was enjoying it massively and whatever end Ann Patchett produced was absolutely fine. But, she sealed the deal with a jaw dropping one. 

This was a five star addition to Patchett's excellent books. I adored it sentence by sentence. Her talent is admirable. All these metaphors, between the line meanings, the story & characters coming together slowly were amazing parts of this book. Definitely one you'd re-read. 

 Definitely, strongly recommended!

Thanks so much to the publisher and NetGalley for this amazing opportunity to read the book early. Opinions are my own.

Ann Patchett is an old-school storyteller. I usually finish her books in a state of wonder (pun intended for the Patchett fans!) and try to imagine her elevator pitch: 'It's a book about a house. Yeah just a house, you know, and the people who lived there.'  The premise is always deceptively simple, no topical themes, no gritty hooks,  just a story about quiet, powerful, ineffable love. I am an older sister and if he was a reader, I could think of no greater gift than to have my brother read this book. How often are the love stories of brothers and sisters told? This one broke my heart. I felt such empathy for all the characters, even the ones I hated for much of the book and that's always a bonus as my biggest criticism of any novel, no matter how eloquent, is when I can't make myself care about the people in it. For me, The Dutch House is far from my imagined elevator pitch - the house is nothing, the people, everything,

I believe this is the first book I have read by award winning author Ann Patchett, and I must say that I am impressed.  We have here a story narrated by Danny, who lives in the so-called Dutch House with his older sister Maeve and his father, along with a couple of servants.  The house is somewhat a fantastical creation that the father bought lock, stock and barrel after the deaths of the previous owners.  As such then this house becomes a character in its own right within these pages and in many ways haunts certain characters.

As we see Danny was too young to remember his mother, when she walked out on the family, although his sister does have memories of her.  We read of how Andrea comes along to be their stepmother, and her obsession with the house.  The opening here did make me think of Dickens in the outlay, and somewhat in the style, and the house as something that in one way or another can be identified as a time of relative comfort and support amongst the family, and once again a Dickensian allusion, with the mother bringing to mind Mrs Jellyby.

A tale of the bond between brother and sister, this also takes us through the years as we see these characters grow and how their lives turn out.  The two were excluded from the Dutch House by their stepmother, after their father died, and thus for the two only Danny has some security with a trust set up for all the children to be educated.

The characters are fully realised with full psychologies and thus this book is imbued with a living reality that a number of authors miss, the house itself can be considered somewhat symbolic due to its representations, as well as being a house in and of itself.  We read of this dysfunctional family then and as the lives of the two main characters are given to us, so we have revealed elements from the past, and find out what happened with their mother, who they both believe to be dead.

Be warned though, this book is subtle and with its complexities wraps itself around you, making it hard to put down.  A great story, this would make a good book for book groups, and is sure to do well.  Every week countless numbers of books are released on to us, the unsuspecting public, but only really a few are what many of us would consider to be something that are really written by an adult for adults, and this is one of those few.  Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC.