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Title details for The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai - Wait list

The Hundred-Year House

by Rebecca Makkai
Jen Tullock
Audiobook
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The acclaimed author of The Borrower returns with a dazzlingly original, mordantly witty novel about the secrets of an old-money family and their turn-of-the-century estate, Laurelfield.
“Rebecca Makkai is a writer to watch, as sneakily ambitious as she is unpretentious."
–Richard Russo
 
Meet the Devohrs: Zee, a Marxist literary scholar who detests her parents’ wealth but nevertheless finds herself living in their carriage house; Gracie, her mother, who claims she can tell your lot in life by looking at your teeth; and Bruce, her step-father, stockpiling supplies for the Y2K apocalypse and perpetually late for his tee time. Then there’s Violet Devohr, Zee’s great-grandmother, who they say took her own life somewhere in the vast house, and whose massive oil portrait still hangs in the dining room.
Violet’s portrait was known to terrify the artists who resided at the house from the 1920s to the 1950s, when it served as the Laurelfield Arts Colony—and this is exactly the period Zee’s husband, Doug, is interested in. An out-of-work academic whose only hope of a future position is securing a book deal, Doug is stalled on his biography of the poet Edwin Parfitt, once in residence at the colony. All he needs to get the book back on track—besides some motivation and self-esteem—is access to the colony records, rotting away in the attic for decades. But when Doug begins to poke around where he shouldn’t, he finds Gracie guards the files with a strange ferocity, raising questions about what she might be hiding. The secrets of the hundred-year house would turn everything Doug and Zee think they know about her family on its head—that is, if they were to ever uncover them.
In this brilliantly conceived, ambitious, and deeply rewarding novel, Rebecca Makkai unfolds a generational saga in reverse, leading the reader back in time on a literary scavenger hunt as we seek to uncover the truth about these strange people and this mysterious house. With intelligence and humor, a daring narrative approach, and a lovingly satirical voice, Rebecca Makkai has crafted an unforgettable novel about family, fate and the incredible surprises life can offer.
For readers of Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 10, 2014

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780147519771
      • File size: 248358 KB
      • Duration: 08:37:24

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from April 7, 2014
      Makkai’s (The Borrower) second novel is a lively and clever story starring an estate with an intricate history. It starts in 1999, with husband and wife Doug and Zee living in the coach house of Zee’s parents’ estate, Laurelfield, which used to be an artists’ colony on Chicago’s wealthy North Shore. Doug is a writer laboring to finish a monograph of poet Edwin Parfitt, a visitor to the colony, while earning money by anonymously writing YA fiction for a book packager. Zee teaches at the local college, scheming to destroy a tenured colleague to make room on the faculty for her husband, but her machinations take an unexpected turn. When Zee’s mother’s second husband allows his son and daughter-in-law to move in to the other apartment in the coach house, the dynamic of the group shifts. Meanwhile Doug discovers a secret about Zee’s family that he can’t share with Zee. The second section of the book goes back in time to the 1950s, when Zee’s mother, Grace, was banished by her family to the mansion with her abusive first husband as punishment for marrying him. In the third section, set in 1929, the owner of the mansion wants to shut it down, and the colonists make plans to stop that from happening—a scheme by the colonists that Doug unwittingly discovers decades later. The book is exceptionally well constructed, with engaging characters busy reinventing themselves throughout, and delightful twists that surprise and satisfy.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Try to label this audiobook? Impossible! Part thriller? Part mystery? Part family saga or ghost story? No matter. Just sit back and absorb the stories! As its spectacular narrator, Jen Tullock is as multifaceted and interesting as the book itself. She twists her voice to suit any of the offbeat characters, managing a kind of neutrality with the plot that makes the revelations all the more surprising. The late-twentieth-century owners of an ivy-covered estate investigate its history, which includes family scandals and a lively arts colony, both of which unraveled within its walls. Tullock never misses a beat with this broad cast and multileveled plot structure. A wonderful audio performance. L.B.F. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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