House at Tyneford by Natasha Solomons

Most reviews I have read regarding this book have compared it to Downton Abbey.  I would say a better comparison is Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca or Jane Eyre.  (If you have not read Rebecca or Jane Eyre they are two Gothic romance must reads that have both been adapted for the big screen several times.  Hitchcock's version of Rebecca is a first rate must see.  Even if you don't like black and white movies, you'll like this one.)

Elise Landau is a privileged non practicing Jew living in Vienna in the 1930's but in the spring of 1938 she is forced to leave home and become a parlour maid in England at the Tyneford estate as her parents wait behind for their own visas to arrive so that they can come to America and send for her.  As time passes she gains and loses love all while holding the mystery of a novel in her father's old viola.

There isn't the same air of mystery that there is in Rebecca or Jane Eyre.  No mysterious voice in the attic or long dead rival hanging over the place but it is told with that same first person point of view with a mysterious older gentleman that may or may not be in love with her.

But there is something the House at Tyneford has that these other influences don't have.  That is Mr. Rivers's son, Kit, a character that I pictured as a young Brad Pitt full of life and charm, the one person to lighten Elise's otherwise dreary life.  He brings energy to the story that you can never fully get attached to because of all the foreshadowing that something bad was coming for him.

Tyneford is based on a real place called Tyneham in Dorset in England.  It is a place that the villagers were forced to leave in 1943 after being requisitioned by the war office.  When they left on Christmas eve, they pinned this note to the door:

‘Please treat the church and houses with care; we have given up our homes where many of us lived for generations to help win the war to keep men free. We shall return one day and thank you for treating the village kindly.’

They were never allowed back and it remains in ruins by the coast owned by the British Ministry of Defense.  The author was inspired by this and stories of privileged Jewish women forced into becoming domestics after being having once had their own servants.  The novel opens with the same sighing remembrance as Rebecca's, "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderlay again."

"When I close my eyes I see Tyneford House."

Authors don't write books like this anymore.  Romantic, mysterious and nostalgic I would rate this an 8 out of 10.