The Red House

"The novel's pleasure, there in spades, lies in Haddon's caustic wit, his pitch-perfect nailing of each of his characters, and in his absurdly concise descriptions of the most banal activities. . . . In providing it, Haddon proves himself, once again, to be a brilliant, modern observer and cataloguer of human vice and frailty." —National PostThe setup of Mark Haddon's brilliant new novel is simple: Richard, a wealthy doctor, invites his estranged sister, Angela, and her family to join his for a week at a vacation home in the English countryside. Richard has just remarried and acquired a willful stepdaughter in the process; Angela has a feckless husband and three children who sometimes seem alien to her. All eight arrive with low expectations for a pleasant holiday. But because of Haddon's extraordinary narrative technique, the stories of these eight people are anything but familiar. Told through the alternating viewpoints of each character, The Red House becomes a symphony of long-held grudges, fading dreams and rising hopes, tightly guarded secrets and illicit desires, all adding up to a portrait of contemporary family life that is bittersweet, comic, and deeply felt.