The Dutch House Longlisted for the Women's Prize 2020

First of, I have to admit that I had this book read to me. HarperCollins has produced an audio version, and I do hope it will find its way onto this website. Tom Hanks has done the honours, and he has done so as beautifully and as charmingly as ever. I am truly and positively enchanted. Secondly, I simply had to buy a paper version. I love the portrait on the cover. And when the picture was finally featured in the novel (towards the end; I may have missed it being mentioned earlier), there was no way around it any longer, I had to have a hard copy. What's not to like about Ann Patchett? Not only is she a very good writer, she is also a colleague, as it were, as the co-owner of Parnassus Books in Nashville. She seems to have done everything right in the Dutch House. "The Dutch House" is a timeless classic. It's set in the sixties and in the years running up to the turn of the century, but it would also work if it was set a couple of hundred years before our time or after; the time doesn't even matter. It's timeless like an old house, and possibly as steadfast. There's sadness, there's joy (remember "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way"). A jewel, a treasure, pure gold. It also reminded me very much of "The Great Gatsby", although there are no glamorous parties at the Dutch House, at least not at first. What's not to love? (P.S. German translation "Das Holländerhaus" due to be published on June 2, 2020!)