There’s no explosive drama, just the slowly altering rhythms of the household as Andrea’s influence begins to strangle the inhabitants, and the legacy of that damage unfolds throughout the years. She takes her time with the plot, allowing things to gently unfurl. Patchett’s prose is very hospitable, crisp and welcoming a little luxurious, but never overdone or showy. “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.” Andrea’s arrival exacts a banishment that will ripple out throughout the lives of the Conroy siblings. One day, Andrea, a friend of their father’s, turns up and the children take an immediate disliking to her, which is unfortunate given she becomes their stepmother and moves in with her own two girls. Their mother left years ago, ripping a hole in their lives that was slowly overcome by the sturdiness of routine. Danny and Maeve Conroy spend their childhood in the Dutch House, a grand and unique mansion, with their emotionally distant property-owner father and their housekeepers.
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