This is a beautifully written book, partially narrated by the titular house (a device that should not work but is perfect). It‘s a story about home and immigration and abuse and family. Each character has their faults and blind spots and most spend some of their time making excuses for past sins—even the house.

I quite liked this. It has a very nineteenth-century social novel feel to it, but is also in some ways a modern grand historical epic focused on the lives of normal people. It follows a group of women who meet at Radcliffe in the 40s through to the early 80s. In telling their stories the novel offers thoughts on love, friendship, sex, politics as well as some lovely historical detail.

A beautiful book. Layered and nuanced, it ponders the meaning of life, the importance of family, and the role of our histories and our memories play in the lives we live.

I was expecting to love this because I loved Station Eleven so much and it did not disappoint. Emily St John Mandel somehow manages to make the sad, the haunting, and the upsetting, incredibly beautiful. This book is about fraud, economic collapse, ghosts, and of course a glass hotel.