Book Club: House of Gold

About the Book

Vien­na, 1911. Twen­ty-one-year-old Gre­ta Gold­baum has always hun­gered after what’s for­bid­den: secret uni­ver­si­ty lec­tures, unseem­ly trum­pet lessons, and most of all, the free­dom to choose her life’s path.

The Gold­baum fam­i­ly has dif­fer­ent expec­ta­tions. Unit­ed across Europe by unsur­passed wealth and pow­er, Gold­baum men are bankers, while Gold­baum women mar­ry Gold­baum men to pro­duce Gold­baum chil­dren. Gre­ta will do her part.

So Gre­ta moves to Eng­land to wed Albert, a dis­tant cousin. The mar­riage is not a suc­cess. Yet, when Albert’s moth­er gives Gre­ta a gar­den, things at Tem­ple Court begin to change. First Gre­ta falls in love with her gar­den, then with Eng­land, and final­ly with her hus­band. But when World War I sends both Albert and Gre­ta’s beloved broth­er, Otto, to the front lines – one to fight for the Allies, one to fight for the Cen­tral Pow­ers – the House of Gold is left vul­ner­a­ble as nev­er before, and Gre­ta must choose: the fam­i­ly she’s cre­at­ed or the one she was forced to leave behind.

Set against a nuanced por­trait of World War I, this is a sweep­ing fam­i­ly saga rich in his­tor­i­cal atmos­phere and heart­break­ing­ly human char­ac­ters. House of Gold is Natasha Solomon­s’s most daz­zling and mov­ing nov­el yet.

(Description: Jewish Book Council)

About the Author and Guest

Natasha Solomons is a British author. Her novels include House of Gold, The Gallery of Vanished Husbands, The House at Tyneford, The Novel of the Viola, The Song Collector, Song of Hartgrove Hall and Mr Rosenblum's List. Solomons has won awards for her novels, including several for The House at Tyneford and The Song of Hartgrove Hall. Her work has been translated into seventeen languages.

Where to Purchase the Book:

House of Gold is available in many libraries and bookstores. Here are some places it can be easily purchased:

From the publisher

Amazon

ThriftBooks

eBay