cover image This House is Mine

This House is Mine

Dörte Hansen, trans. from the German by Anne Stokes. St. Martin’s, $26.99 (336p) ISBN 978-1-250-10085-6

Hansen’s haunting debut novel spans 70 years, from 1945 to the present, presenting a progression of women who carry their histories with them. Vera is a Polish refugee. In the depths of winter, she and her mother, Hildegard, journey across the barren expanse of post-WWII Europe looking for a new home. Their destination is the farm of Ida Eckhoff, where Ida lives with her son, Karl, who was injured in the war. The book switches between Vera adjusting to life in northern Germany, and modern-day Hamburg, where we follow Vera’s niece, the recently single Anne Hove, and Anne’s son, Leon. In alternating chapters, Hansen slowly reveals the threads that connect these two women. Anne is a single mother and recently jobless, and she decides to retreat with Leon to the family farm, where a much older Vera still lives. That house, and the haunting memories of generations of family, keeps Vera awake at night as it decays around her. Vera never felt at home there but never left; Anne has never lived there but insists on making it home, and she begins to fix the decrepit building. Hansen’s passages about the house and its village are fully realized and vivid, allowing for the setting to enhance the characters. Though the narrative is perhaps a bit familiar, Hansen makes this story about the process of healing affecting, real, and memorable. [em](Nov.) [/em]