Elise Landau is part of the glittering set of Vienna in 1938. (A peripheral part, to be sure – she’s really just a kid. But a part, nonetheless.) Daughter of a famous opera singer and an avant-garde novelist, sister of an up-and-coming (and beautiful) violist, Elise is accustomed to a world of parties, champagne, silk dresses, pastries in the famous hotels and cafes of Vienna. She is steeped in culture and luxury, living a life of ease as the petted baby of a well-off family. Until she’s not. Because, you see, it’s 1938 and Vienna and Elise is Jewish. Her parents, Anna and Julian, are bound for New York; her sister Margaret and brother-in-law Robert are headed for San Francisco. But Elise is not famous – she’s not part of the intelligentsia or glitterati, and so nobody wants her. Yet she must escape Vienna and she does – on a “domestic service visa” – a means for privileged young Jewish girls from the Continent to flee to England by taking up positions as housemaids in the great country houses. Elise finds herself a place at Tyneford House, with the Rivers family – one of the oldest, most respected non-titled English families. Life as a housemaid is hard, especially for one used to getting her way in everything. Elise has to learn to work hard, keep long hours, and ignore the disrespect she is expected to absorb as a maid. She has to keep silent through petty indignities from the other staff, and real cruelty from a nasty houseguest. But while Elise’s life in England is hard, Tyneford comes to feel like home. Elise makes friends – a local girl named Poppy, and Kit Rivers, the son of the master of the house. Elise’s friendship with Kit will transform them both – but when the war escalates, everyone at Tyneford is going to have to accept the big changes that are coming.

Elise’s struggles were wrenchingly real.  From the early fish-out-of-the-water moments she experiences as she tries to navigate London without much English-speaking ability, to her initially awkward, but later more natural, friendship-turned-romance, to her suffering at being considered an “enemy alien” by England when she has had to flee her own country, Elise certainly goes through a great deal.  Her experiences change her, in realistic ways – the reader sees her evolve from the spoiled, pampered young girl of the first pages to a more world-weary woman, old beyond her years.  Yet Elise does not allow the injustices she suffers to harden her.  She remains the same Elise – insecure, but capable of loving deeply.  It is a skillful writer indeed who can take a character through the many assaults Elise suffers without letting her become angry at the world.

I loved The House at Tyneford. I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect, because this is exactly the kind of book that I have a tendency to build up in my mind until nothing could possibly live up to my expectations, no matter how good. But Tyneford was well-written, exciting, heart-rending and evocative of a lost period of time. I’m so glad that it proved to be a worthwhile read, because I so wanted to love it. Don’t you love when you want to love a book, and it lets you love it?

Get the book!  The House at Tyneford, by Natasha Solomons (not an affiliate link)

I’m submitting this book review to the What’s In A Name? Challenge hosted by Beth Fish Reads, in the category “House.”  Cruise on over to her blog to see the other submissions!