- Published: 31 July 2014
- ISBN: 9781448185764
- Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 352
The Hundred-Year House
- Published: 31 July 2014
- ISBN: 9781448185764
- Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 352
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 Laurelfield's various inhabitants is at it first appears, and neither talent nor history sits on solid ground.
Ru Freeman, author of On Sal Mal Lane and A Disobedient Girl
Rebecca Makkai's 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
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
Rebecca Makkai is a writer to watch, as sneakily ambitious as she is unpretentious.
Richard Russo
Makkai’s second novel is a lively and clever story starring an estate with an intricate history . . . The book is exceptionally well constructed, with engaging characters busy reinventing themselves throughout, and delightful twists that surprise and satisfy
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Charmingly clever and mischievously funny, Makkai follows her enthusiastically praised first novel, The Borrower (2011), with an intriguingly structured tale — each section takes a step back in time — set on a fabled, possibly haunted estate north of Chicago ... Her offbeat characters and suspenseful story could have added up to a stylish romp. Instead, Makkai offers that and much more as she stealthily investigates the complexities of ambition, sexism, violence, creativity, and love in this diverting yet richly dimensional novel.
Booklist (starred review)
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 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 ... Makkai's lyrical prose quietly lifts off the page while her carefully crafted plot charges forward.
The Boston Globe
Makkai humorously turns the conventional family saga on its head, in a clever exploration of metamorphosis and secrecy.
Huffington Post
This novel is stunning: ambitious, readable, and intriguing. Its gothic elements, complexity, and plot twists are reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin. Chilling and thoroughly enjoyable ... A daring takeoff from her entertaining debut.
Library Journal (starred review)
Makkai’s second novel defies genre – part literary mystery, part comedy of manners, part wickedly funny satire. Whichever way you look at it, it’s remarkable.
Daily Mail