Science and Technical Research and Development.Infrastructure Management - Transport, Utilities.Information Services, Statistics, Records, Archives.Information and Communications Technology.HR, Training and Organisational Development.Health - Medical and Nursing Management.Facility / Grounds Management and Maintenance.Patchett is a master at pacing and detail: why are the brother and sister parked outside in darkness when the house is filled with light? Where is home now? Over and again the pair will find themselves parked – in different years, in different cars – in front of the house, on the outside looking in. Through the windows they can observe their stepmother, Andrea, turning on the lights as evening draws in Patchett hints at a kind of exile, but plays her cards close to her chest.ĭanny can’t really see into the house, “but memory filled in the picture” with the kind of specific recollection that can only come from longing. It’s the early 1960s, Danny is 15 and just home from his first semester at boarding school Maeve is seven years older, driving a blue Oldsmobile station wagon given to her by their father. In the book’s opening pages we find the narrator, Danny, and his older sister Maeve parked outside the eponymous house, a mansion not far from Philadelphia, where the pair grew up.

Not least because in The Dutch House, her eighth novel, cars have a not insignificant role to play. In 2019 the image may no longer be ecologically sound, but I like to think it works nonetheless. I know she’ll handle every curve with aplomb she’ll never brake too hard. She’s in full control behind the wheel, there are no bumps in the road, the scenery is gorgeous.

Patchett is in the driver’s seat and I don’t mind where she takes me. I sometimes think that reading a novel by Ann Patchett is like climbing into a luxurious automobile and hitting the road on a perfect day.

The dutch house cover