The House at Tyneford
40. Natasha Solomons, The House at Tyneford
Elise Landau has a happy childhood growing up in Vienna with her mother Anna, father Julian, and sister Margot. However, in the turbulent Europe of 1938, it is unsafe to be a Jew in Vienna. Therefore Elise decides to place an advertisement to become a maid in an English household. Her parents and sister plan to move to America, and Elise will join them within the year. Elise arrives at Tyneford willing to do her best to become a maid, but she finds it difficult to keep from speaking her mind to the master of the house, Mr. Rivers, and his son Kit. Her unusual status in the household leads to many upheavals in the local society, but the greatest upheaval of all is the arrival of World War II.
This novel has a lot going for it, in my opinion: the WWII setting, Elise’s strange upstairs-downstairs life at Tyneford, the glimpse of prewar British high society, and the promise of romance are all things I tend to enjoy in books. However, something about this novel felt a bit flat to me. I think I had trouble relating to Elise. She’s spunky enough, but I felt like she didn’t have very much substance to her. I wasn’t sure why I should care about her except that she was the heroine (and narrator). The book also deals with many tragedies (unsurprisingly), but I didn’t feel very much emotional impact. I did like the book overall, but I never quite fell in love with it. I’d still recommend it for fans of the time period, though - it does have a slight “Downton Abbey”-esque flavor to it!