The Dutch House

This book came so highly recommended by so many (with the primary recommendation being to listen to it as Tom Hanks narrated it!). I am glad I listened as I think I would have read this book pretty slowly (it’s definitely a slower-moving read) whereas having Tom Hanks talking to me for ten hours is something I just gobbled up. This is one of the times you really appreciate a book in audio, as Tom Hanks doesn’t just read it, he performs it! The Dutch House is the story of two siblings, Danny and Maeve… spanning five decades, taking us all the way through their childhood through late adulthood. As children, they suffer horrible loss (twice!) and they find themselves unable to let go of the past (or maybe it is the past that will not let them go). The story follows them from their beautiful child home (The Dutch House, a lavish, mostly glass property outside of Philadelphia) and back again. It is horribly sad at times, wickedly funny at others… and overall a wonderful story about love, loss, and embracing the things we cannot change. I loved it. Truthfully I don’t know if I would have loved it as much in paper form (I appreciate literary fiction but don’t always enjoy it?) but I absolutely adored it in audio form. Order on Bookshop.org or Amazon.