Synopses & Reviews
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 theres Violet Devohr, Zees 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.
Violets 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 Colonyand this is exactly the period Zees 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 trackbesides some motivation and self-esteemis access to the colony records, rotting away in the attic for decades. But when Doug begins to poke around where he shouldnt, 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 headthat 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
Review
“[A] gleeful tale of ghosts, vengeance and family secrets…The darkly funny Makkai seeds the narrative with so many mysteries and surprises...that those 100 years race by.”
—People, “The Best New Books”
“A big-hearted gothic novel, an intergenerational mystery, a story of heartbreak and a romance, all crammed into one grand Midwestern estate….A juicy and moving story of art and love and the luck it takes for either to last.”
—Los Angeles Times
“An entertaining, ambitious saga ….Makkais lyrical prose quietly lifts off the page while her carefully crafted plot charges forward.”
—The Boston Gobe
“Ingenious…sharp and ambitious….[brimming] with humor and a fondness for hijinks…..Both clever and heartfelt, this is a book with something for pretty much everyone….You will smile, guaranteed.”
—Cleveland Plain-Dealer
“A witty mystery set at a countryside estate….Makkais humorous, expertly orchestrated storytelling will surprise you.”
—Oprah.com, “6 Dazzling New Beach Reads”
“Makkai has written a novel that reads almost like early Muriel Spark — clever, competent, and concealing an unsettling and skewed reality….The hand that keeps giving the kaleidoscope another turn, controlling just how the pieces land, isn't fate, of course. It's the artist. Makkai is one.”
—Chicago Tribune
“As restless, and as sly, as the mythical Proteus, [Makkai] nimbly remakes her novel at every turn….It takes a special trick to remake the world without a reader noticing; it takes a tremendous talent to do it again and again.”
—NPR.org
“Compelling….clever….full of unexpected storytelling and wry humor….The delight is in the details, so don't plan to consume this one between naps. Instead, tuck your reading glasses into your carry-on and devour it on the plane. Revelations, increasingly delicious and devastating, come faster and more furiously as the text progresses, and you'll want sharp focus so you don't miss them.”
—Denver Post
“A sly, funny, literary mystery, a meet-cute romantic comedy, and a metafictional meditation on fate rolled up into one.”
—The Austin Chronicle
“Clever and acrobatic….Makkai is a juggler, handling the many plots, characters and ideas with ease and humor and, at times, pathos.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“A page-turner of a novel with whip-smart dialogue.”
—Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“Makkais screwball intrigue [is] fresh and fun.”
—Good Housekeeping, Summer 2014 Reading List
“A clever and utterly delightful work of fiction…infused with a respect for literature and literary culture, as well as a wry sense of humor…[and] starring a house with as much personality as Manderley or Hill House.”
—BookPage
“An imaginative and lively epic.”
—Flavorwire
“Makkai humorously turns the conventional family saga on its head, in a clever exploration of metamorphosis and secrecy.”
—Huffington Post, The Book Were Talking About
“Hilarious and heartbreaking….utterly absorbing….Makkai creates eccentric characters the reader cant give up on [and her] witty and engrossing writing style belies the nearly Dickensian way she layers characters over time, revealing hidden identities and unknown connections…. Deceptively light and fast-paced, the story will stay with the reader long after the satisfying conclusion.”
—San Antonio Current
“The pleasures of Makkais novel are contagious….[The Hundred-Year House] manages the rare feat of crafting a smart comedy with a satisfyingly fierce pace — this book is a true page-turner — while indulging in an unusual structure….Here, we find a writer with an innately intelligent and assured comedic voice, someone who obviously has a deep literary pedigree but appears more interested in having fun on the page and puzzling out the complexities of a tightly woven plot.”
—Toronto Star
“Deliciously entertaining….Rare indeed is the novel that combines beautiful prose with ideas as robust as those on display in The Hundred-Year House—not to mention a story like a set of Penrose stairs, connected in the most playful, the most surprising of ways….A wonderful novel, as beautifully written as it is painstakingly plotted, with the structure to please any literary critic, and a story absorbing enough to satisfy the most ravenous reader.”
—Winnipeg Free-Press
“A puzzle-box of a story that moves backward in time….Makkai invites the reader, more than any character, to play detective. Flipping back to earlier sections to spot…clues hidden in plain sight is one of the books distinct pleasures. Makkai [is] a mainstay of contemporary literary fiction.”
—The Kansas City Star
“A funny, engaging, time-traveling love story.”
—Tampa Bay Times
“The Hundred-Year House is a puzzle, a plunge into a world of fascinating characters, and an examination of human relationships. It is not to be missed.”
—BookBrowse
“This novel is stunning: ambitious, readable, and intriguing. Its gothic elements, complexity, and plot twists are reminiscent of Margaret Atwoods The Blind Assassin. Chilling and thoroughly enjoyable…A daring takeoff from her entertaining debut.”
—Library Journal (starred)
“Charmingly clever and mischievously funny…A dazzling plot spiked with secrets…[Makkai] stealthily investigates the complexities of ambition, sexism, violence, creativity, and love in this diverting yet richly dimensional novel.”
—Booklist (starred)
“A lively and clever story…exceptionally well-constructed, with engaging characters busy reinventing themselves throughout, and delightful twists that surprise and satisfy.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred)
“Suspenseful [and] amusing….Makkai's novel will keep readers on edge until the last piece of the puzzle drops into place and the whole brilliant picture can be seen at once, sharp and clear.”
—Shelf Awareness (starred)
“Rebecca Makkai is the most refreshing kind of writer there is: both genius and generous. Every masterfully crafted connection, every lovingly nestled detail, is a gift to the attentive reader. Playful, poignant, and richly rewarding, The Hundred-Year House is the most absorbing book I've read in ages. Before you've finished, you'll want to read it again.”
—Eleanor Henderson, author of Ten Thousand Saints
“A mesmerizing story of self-reinvention that delights on every page, told with keen wit and a perceptive eye. Like the unforgettable characters in this gripping novel, Laurelfield will draw you into its spell.”
—Charlie Lovett, author of The Bookmans Tale
“The Hundred-Year House is a funny, sad and delightful romp through the beginning, middle and end of an artists' colony as well as the family mansion that sheltered it and the family members who do and don't survive it. Told backwards from the viewpoints of an array of eccentric and intertwined characters, the story's secrets are revealed with stunning acuity. An ambitious work, well-realized.”
—B. A. Shapiro, author of The Art Forger
“Makkai fulfills the promise of her debut with this witty and darkly acerbic novel set in the rich soils of an artists colony. The inverted timeline of the multi-generational narrative deepens the layered mysteries at its heart. As decades unfold in reverse, we find that nothing about Laurelfields various inhabitants is at it first appears, and neither talent nor history sits on solid ground.”
—Ru Freeman, author of On Sal Mal Lane
Review
Praise for THE HUNDRED-YEAR HOUSE
Selected by Oprah as a Best Beach Read for Summer 2014
“A big-hearted gothic novel, an intergenerational mystery, a story of heartbreak and a romance, all crammed into one grand Midwestern estate….A juicy and moving story of art and love and the luck it takes for either to last.”
—Los Angeles Times
“An entertaining, ambitious saga ….Makkais lyrical prose quietly lifts off the page while her carefully crafted plot charges forward.”
—The Boston Gobe
“As restless, and as sly, as the mythical Proteus, [Makkai] nimbly remakes her novel at every turn….It takes a special trick to remake the world without a reader noticing; it takes a tremendous talent to do it again and again.”
—NPR.org
“What if you could feel yourself being yanked through life on the puppet strings of someone elses happy ending? The Hundred-Year House explores this disquieting premise under the guise of a metafictional comedy of manners, and succeeds by treating its subject with a deceptively light hand….Makkai has written a novel that reads almost like early Muriel Spark — clever, competent, and concealing an unsettling and skewed reality….The hand that keeps giving the kaleidoscope another turn, controlling just how the pieces land, isn't fate, of course. It's the artist. Makkai is one.”
—Chicago Tribune
“A page-turner of a novel with whip-smart dialogue.”
—Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“Makkais screwball intrigue [is] fresh and fun.”
—Good Housekeeping, Summer 2014 Reading List
“A clever and utterly delightful work of fiction…infused with a respect for literature and literary culture, as well as a wry sense of humor…[and] starring a house with as much personality as Manderley or Hill House. Told in reverse chronology, it unfolds as a kind of bookish scavenger hunt….Though no one character ever knows all the houses secrets, the reader does, and putting all the facts together is half the fun.”
—BookPage
“A puzzle-box of a story that moves backward in time….Makkai invites the reader, more than any character, to play detective. Flipping back to earlier sections to spot…clues hidden in plain sight is one of the books distinct pleasures. Makkai [is] a mainstay of contemporary literary fiction.”
—The Kansas City Star
“An imaginative and lively epic…If you caught Makkais debut novel, The Borrower, you know just how clever and engaging she can be. Prediction: The Hundred-Year House will be her breakout hit.”
—Flavorwire
“This novel is stunning: ambitious, readable, and intriguing. Its gothic elements, complexity, and plot twists are reminiscent of Margaret Atwoods The Blind Assassin. Chilling and thoroughly enjoyable…A daring takeoff from her entertaining debut.”
—Library Journal (starred)
“Charmingly clever and mischievously funny…A dazzling plot spiked with secrets…[Makkai] stealthily investigates the complexities of ambition, sexism, violence, creativity, and love in this diverting yet richly dimensional novel.”
—Booklist (starred)
“A lively and clever story…exceptionally well-constructed, with engaging characters busy reinventing themselves throughout, and delightful twists that surprise and satisfy.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred)
Praise for THE BORROWER
“Rarely is a first novel as smart and engaging and learned and funny and moving as The Borrower. Rebecca Makkai is a writer to watch, as sneakily ambitious as she is unpretentious.”
—Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of That Old Cape Magic and Empire Falls
“An appealing, nonromantic love story…and a surprisingly moving one.”
—The New York Times
“Charming…[filled] with good humor and wry self-knowledge…How could any reader of any age resist [The Borrower]?”
—O, The Oprah Magazine, “Books Every Book Lover Needs to Read”
“[A] charming, witty book.”
—The Washington Post
“This comical and touching book strikes a nice balance between literary artistry and gripping storytelling…Satisfying and well-plotted.”
—The Daily Beast, “3 Must-Read Novels”
“Makkais probing novel reminds us that literature matters because it helps us discover ourselves while exploring the worlds of others.”
—The Chicago Tribune
“A lively, lovely read…[a] solid adventure tale.”
—WSJ.com
“[A] delightfully quirky debut.”
—Good Housekeeping
“A splendid first novel [with a] whimsically patchwork plot. Larger-than-life characters and an element of the picaresque add to the books delights.”
—Booklist (starred), named one of the Top Ten First Novels of 2011
“A captivating read…hilariously off-kilter.”
—Parade
“Charming and original…A stylish and clever tale.”
—Library Journal
Review
"Rarely is a first novel as smart and engaging and learned and funny and moving as The Borrower. Rebecca Makkai is a writer to watch, as sneakily ambitious as she is unpretentious."
Review
“An appealing, nonromantic love story about an unexpected pairing—and a surprisingly moving one.”
Review
“This comical and touching book strikes a nice balance between literary artistry and gripping storytelling, and offers a contemporary take on the classic “journey of discovery.”…Right up to the book’s satisfying and well-plotted ending, Makkai shows us that even though the stories we are told as children are often fount to betray us as mere fantasy, there might still be some wisdom in the one of their most common and simple morals: Be true to yourself.”
Review
“Rebecca Makkai’s The Borrower is full of books, libraries, cross-country hijinks, accidental parenting, love gone wrong and friendships gone right. Makkai will have you cheering for her librarian heroine, who has all the history and darkness of a Russian novel in her veins, mixed with the humor and spirit of Bridget Jones. A fun, moving, and delightful read.”
Review
“In the hilariously off-kilter world Makkai creates, it makes perfect sense that 26-year-old children’s librarian Lucy Hull and her favorite reading-obsessed patron, 10-year-old Ian Drake, should ‘kidnap’ each other and take a loopy road trip. Clever riffs on classic kid lit pepper the sparkling prose, making this first novel a captivating read.”
Review
“How could any reader of any age resist Rebecca Makkai’s charming The Borrower, a novel that tracks the relationship between a 20-something librarian and a 10-year-old boy with punitive parents. Part caper (the two take off on a road trip that has moments of danger but never turns dark), part coming-of-age (and not just for the kid!) story, it manages, with good humor and wry self-knowledge, to read our minds.”
Review
“A lively, lovely read that delicately weaves together social activism, literary culture and the quintessential road trip motif into a single solid adventure tale…Reading The Borrower is like taking a blissfully nostalgic journey into the bookshelves of American childhood.”—WSJ.com
Review
“A wise and likable tale about the difficulty of protecting a precocious imagination.”
Review
“Poignant...every conflicted word Lucy utters in Makkai’s probing novel reminds us that literature matters because it helps us discover ourselves while exploring the worlds of others.”
Synopsis
A dazzlingly original new novel from the acclaimed author of The Borrower
Rebecca Makkai is one of the most admired young fiction writers in America. Her short fiction was selected for The Best American Short Stories for four years running, and Richard Russo has called her as sneakily ambitious as she is unpretentious . . . a writer to watch.”
Now, Makkai returns with an ingenious novel set on an historic estate that once housed an arts colony. Doug, the husband of the estates heir, desperately needs the colony files to get his stalled academic career back on track. But what he discovers when he finally gets his hands on them is more than he bargained for. Doug may never learn the houses secrets, but the reader will, as Makkai leads us on a thrilling journey into the past of this eccentric family.
With intelligence, wit, and a daring narrative approach, Rebecca Makkai has crafted an unforgettable novel about identity, fate, and the incredible surprises life can offer.
Synopsis
"Rarely is a first novel as smart and engaging and learned and funny and moving as The Borrower." —Richard Russo, author of Pulitzer Prize–winning Empire Falls
Lucy Hull, a children’s librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, finds herself both kidnapper and kidnapped when her favorite patron, ten-year-old Ian Drake, runs away from home. Ian needs Lucy’s help to smuggle books past his overbearing mother, who has enrolled Ian in weekly antigay classes. Desperate to save him from the Drakes, Lucy allows herself to be hijacked by Ian when she finds him camped out in the library after hours, and the odd pair embarks on a crazy road trip. But is it just Ian who is running away? And should Lucy be trying to save a boy from his own parents?
Synopsis
A spellbinding short story collection from a master of the form, the acclaimed author of The Hundred-Year House
Rebecca Makkais first two novels, The Borrower and The Hundred-Year House have established her as one of the freshest and most imaginative voices in fiction. Now, the acclaimed writer returns with a highly anticipated collection of short stories marked with her signature mix of intelligence, wit, and heart.
A reality show producer manipulates two contestants into falling in love, while her own relationship falls apart. Just after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a young boy has a revelation about his fathers past when a renowned Romanian violinist plays a concert in their home. In an unnamed country, a composer records the folk songs of two women from a village on the brink of destruction.
Makkai has been anthologized four times in The Best American Short Stories as well as The Best American Nonrequired Reading. These wide-ranging and deeply moving storiessome inspired by her family historywill delight her many fans, as well as readers of Lorrie Moore, Jim Shepard, and Karen Russell.
Synopsis
In this delightful, funny, and moving first novel, a librarian and a young boy obsessed with reading take to the road. Lucy Hull, a young children's librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, finds herself both a kidnapper and kidnapped when her favorite patron, ten- year-old Ian Drake, runs away from home. The precocious Ian is addicted to reading, but needs Lucy's help to smuggle books past his overbearing mother, who has enrolled Ian in weekly antigay classes with celebrity Pastor Bob. Lucy stumbles into a moral dilemma when she finds Ian camped out in the library after hours with a knapsack of provisions and an escape plan. Desperate to save him from Pastor Bob and the Drakes, Lucy allows herself to be hijacked by Ian. The odd pair embarks on a crazy road trip from Missouri to Vermont, with ferrets, an inconvenient boyfriend, and upsetting family history thrown in their path. But is it just Ian who is running away? Who is the man who seems to be on their tail? And should Lucy be trying to save a boy from his own parents?
About the Author
Rebecca Makkai is the author of the acclaimed novels The Hundred-Year House and The Borrower, an Indie Next pick, an O, The Oprah Magazine Fall Reading selection, a Booklist Top Ten Debut, and one of Chicago Magazine's choices for best fiction of 2011. Her work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories (2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008), Best American Nonrequired Reading, Harper's, McSweeney's, Tin House, Ploughshares, Iowa Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and New England Review, among others, and has aired on "This American Life." She lives outside Chicago with her husband and two daughters.