The London House. Katherine Reay. 2021. [November] 368 pages. [Source: Library]
First sentence: Caro hugged Martine, whispering close to her ear.
There are essentially two main stories unfolding in Katherine Reay's The London House. There is a story within a story. Caroline Payne is being compelled to revisit a "dark family secret." A friend--or former friend, possibly still a true forever friend--is about to publish an article revealing her family's dark, scandalous past. She doesn't believe him--at first. Her father--who is dying--is irate. She cannot deny blind facts. But she can question their interpretation and possible biases by the author. His name is Mat Hammond, and they were college friends and classmates. The big "dark" "scandalous" secret is that her great-aunt Caroline Waite ran away with a Nazi lover [allegedly] and betrayed her country. The cover-up through the generations is that Caroline died as a child.
Caroline promises to comment [or contribute] to the story...but only after she's done her own research into the past. She returns to her family's British home--THE LONDON HOUSE--and finds the diaries, letters, etc. from both her great-aunt and her grandmother. There are certainly "secrets" to be found, but do they fall in line with Mat's story??? Or does what she reads convince her that Mat's theories are all wrong??? Is the "scandalous secret" that simple and straight forward?
Much of the plot is centered around events in the 1930s and early 1940s. In the years leading up to war and the war itself. Caroline [the aunt] wroked in Paris for a designer named Elsa Schiaparelli. There are some historical details woven into the story. Like discussion of the lobster dress.
Quotes:
History reflects humanity. It isn't one dimensional, or even two-dimensional; it's multifaceted and far more complex and nuanced than we allow.
Humans are messy. Their history is going to be messy.
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