The Hundred-Year House

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The acclaimed author of The Borrower returns with a mordantly witty novel about the secrets of an old-money family and their estate, Laurelfield. Meet the Devohrs: Zee, a Marxist literary scholar who detests her parents' wealth yet lives in their carriage house; Gracie, her mother, who claims to discern one's fate by examining their teeth; and Bruce, her step-father, who hoards supplies for the Y2K apocalypse and is perpetually late for golf. Then there's Violet Devohr, Zee's great-grandmother, rumored to have taken her own life in the house, with her imposing oil portrait still hanging in the dining room. This portrait once terrified artists at the Laurelfield Arts Colony from the 1920s to the 1950s, a period of interest for Zee's husband, Doug. An out-of-work academic desperate for a book deal, Doug is stalled on his biography of poet Edwin Parfitt, who resided at the colony. He needs access to the colony records, long neglected in the attic. However, when Doug probes too deeply, he discovers Gracie fiercely guards the files, hinting at hidden truths. The secrets of the century-old house could upend everything Doug and Zee believe about her family—if they can uncover them. In this ambitious novel, Rebecca Makkai unfolds a generational saga in reverse, leading readers on a literary scavenger hunt to reveal the mysteries of this strange family and their enigmatic home.