After his mother's death, Richard, a newly remarried hospital consultant, decides to build bridges with his estranged sister, inviting Angela and her family for a week in a rented house on the Welsh border. Four adults and four children, a single family and all of them strangers. Seven days of shared meals, log fires, card games, and wet walks.
But in the quiet and stillness of the valley, ghosts begin to rise up. The parents Richard thought he had. The parents Angela thought she had. Past and present lovers. Friends, enemies, victims, saviours. And watching over all of them from high on the dark hill, Karen, Angela's stillborn daughter.
The Red House is about the extraordinariness of the ordinary, weaving the words and thoughts of the eight characters together with those fainter, stranger voices - of books and letters and music, of the dead who once inhabited these rooms, of the ageing house itself and the landscape in which it sits.©2012 AudioGO Ltd; ©2012 Mark Haddon
"Thoroughly engrossing and enjoyable entertainment." (Angus Clarke, The Times)
"This is a very literary novel...[but] with writing as elegant and truthful as this, readers will wish to keep their copies close at hand to savour again." (Michael Arditti, Daily Mail)
"Not recommended."
I'm sorry but I cannot and will not recommend this book. Check out some of the reviews on Amazon, I wish I had before I bought this book on special offer. I am not sure what the author was thinking but I imagine he was trying to be 'arty' but writing this book in weird present tense when talking of the past, using short, disjointed sentences and writing whole chapters referring to the characters as only she or he (confusing when there are so many people in the book) does not make for easy reading and only serves to put off readers. To be honest, I felt cheated! I would not recommend that anyone down load this, it's not worth the bother.
"Depressing"
Kept waiting for some meaningful reason to continue listening and only did so because I had bought it! Probably a very talented author, but for my money, there has to be a story and this one had little or no substance.
"The Red House - Excellent"
The red house is a story about a brother and sister who go on a holiday with their respective families in a houser in the welsh valleys. The story highlights normal family life and their trials and tribulations. The book is very well written and the narration is excellent.
I have listened to this book many, many times and recommend it to any one who loves a good story
"Some believable family complexities"
A story that takes you through the different and estranged relationships within a modern family. Believable and honest.
"Nice story"
A lovely story about the trials of family holidays, and the difficulties in reuniting long estranged siblings. This story also highlights the tenuous relationship between memory and truth, and the damage bereavement can cause for individuals and families. The story is good covering the point of view of all of the characters, however it is often difficult to tell which character is talking in the audiobook, as some are given very similar voices.
"Not bad, but..."
I absolutely loved Mark Haddon's previous books so I was really looking forward to this one. I was a bit disappointed though; it's well written, but didn't seem to go anywhere and I was left wondering what the point had been at the end.