The House at Tyneford

By: Natasha Solomons / Narrated By: Justine Eyre

Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins

An emotional journey that I was totally in the mood for!

I love women’s fiction, chick-lit, even some romances (especially if they’re Regencies!), but I have to admit that I’ve been through enough of all of the above to find myself having low standards. Seems like anybody nowadays can write something and chuck it out there: World beware!

That said, I also like heavier audiobooks, non-fiction, on, say, oh I dunno, maybe genocide—Cambodian genocide—To Destroy You is No Loss?!? That book left me reeling so much that the first audiobook I dashed off to find was my most recent addition: The House at Tyneford by Natasha Solomons.

>Phew!<

Still, it’s a heavier work of fiction as it starts in Vienna in the late 30s when things are starting to get really bad for Jews, which Elise just happens to be. Her family basically forces her to advertise herself as someone who will work at anything, just as long as it’s out of Austria, nowhere near Germany.

And that’s how she becomes a house maid at the house at Tyneford. This is a story about love and romance, class and lines not to be crossed, peace then war. It starts when she’s in a No-Man’s class, not really a servant, but definitely not one of those who are served.

I suppose the greatest failing of the story is that Elise comes off as a trifle lazy, a trifle entitled, certainly impulsive and oh so prone to standing around and daydreaming whilst all around her are working their tails off. (Most of the daydreaming comes through very long, extremely well-written descriptions of nature. The passages were so long, I almost thought they were excessive, but it turns out Elise is so enthralled by it all, she’s zoning out too!)

Still, I liked the characters, especially Mr. Rivers and the also-impulsive Kit, and the villains were written well-enough that I found myself booing and hissing when they were onstage. The romance, while initially unbelievable, morphed into something gentle and entirely credible. The changing qualities within the relationships were true-to-life, especially given that war changes people, leaving them with different priorities, maybe different values. And after war hits, society’s norms change too, making the shift in class-lines a major part of the second half of the story.

As an audiobook, Justine Eyre’s performance might be the weakest aspect as a whole. She has a tendency of delivering each line with a throat growl topping off the ends of the sentences. It was very off-putting initially, but then I got into the flow of the story, and the dialogue was unhindered by that strange affectation.

Expect sweetness, expect the harshness of war, expect the realities of loving people trapped as Jews in Europe, expect even a bit of the bonds that only sisters have with each other. And of course, expect a bit of a history lesson.

The House at Tyneford is a well-written jaunt into another time that inspired a lump in my throat at times, and some sweet smiles throughout. Elise is a great character you find yourself feeling immense sympathy for, and it’s a really nice way to spend 14 hours that fly by mighty quickly.

It can’t be hardcore non-fiction all the time. Thank heavens there are audiobooks like this to punctuate the listening cycle!