Who recommended The Dutch House?

8 people have recommended The Dutch House in the interviews, articles and reading lists we track, including Sophie Bakalar, Gretchen Rubin, Susan J. Fowler and Stephen King. Each name links to their full reading list.

Is The Dutch House worth reading?

8 people we track recommend it. It is best for: a book-club member who is moderating next month’s meeting and needs a title that sparks debate — the novel’s moral ambiguity about inheritance and long grudges hands you concrete scenes and questions to pull apart aloud; a parent who reads in 30–45 minute evening sessions and wants slow, well-crafted scenes rather than cliffhangers — the book rewards chunked, reflective reading and won’t punish stopping between chapters; a mid-career fiction writer revising a family saga and trying to make place feel alive on the page — the novel gives sustained examples of using one house as an emotional anchor across decades that you can study while drafting. It may not suit: you'll likely put it down when the same grievances are restated without new stakes — the middle stretches replay resentments and can feel stalled; annoying if you prefer plot-driven momentum or frequent emotional payoff — this is steady, retrospective, and low on dramatic twists; frustrating if you want an explicitly redemptive arc for every character — several figures remain distant or unresolved, which some readers find unsatisfying.

What books are like The Dutch House?

Readers of The Dutch House also turn to The Pillars of the Earth, 11/22/63 and The Tiger's Wife, based on the lists and recommenders these books share.

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett: Recommended by 8 People

Name: The Dutch House
Author: Ann Patchett

At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets i...