The House by the Lake cover art

The House by the Lake

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

The House by the Lake

By: Thomas Harding
Narrated by: Mark Meadows
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

In the summer of 1993, Thomas Harding travelled to Germany with his grandmother to visit a house by a lake. It had been a holiday home for her family, that she had been forced to leave as the Nazis swept to power.

As he began to piece together the lives of the five families who had lived, he realised that this house had witnessed violence, betrayals and murders, had withstood the trauma of a world war and the dividing of a nation.

©2015 Thomas Harding (P)2015 W F Howes Ltd 20th Century Europe Germany Judaism Military Modern World War Holocaust

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Legacy cover art
White Debt cover art
Escaping Hitler cover art
Das Haus: In East Berlin cover art
The Last Train cover art
Children of the Stone cover art
In Manchuria cover art
Wild Swans cover art
The Good Germans cover art
Forty Autumns cover art
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun cover art
The Covenant of Water cover art
Light and Shadow cover art
One of Us cover art

Critic reviews

"A gripping thriller, an unspeakable crime, an essential history." (John Le Carré on Hanns and Rudolf)
All stars
Most relevant  
It's not very often to find a book about the troubled times of Germany before,during and after the second world war This was not a rollicking yarn just a steady interesting sometimes upsetting tale Well done I thoroughly enjoyed

Fascinating

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I really loved this book. Touches on all the major themes of German society in the 20th century. Highly recommended.

Thoroughly enjoyable

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The book depicts the history of this house near Berlin which saw inhabitants from the mid 1800s whose lives together make up a history lesson about Germany. German society and politics under the Kaiser, before and after WW1 and WW2 are illustrated through the series of owners and inhabitants of the house, including the author's ancestors.
Especially the early parts of the book were interesting, although much of the personal details of the inhabitants seemed unnecessary and the descriptive details were too concise to keep my attention all of the times.
The stories about the house after WW2 began to be more interesting again, with a variety of information about life in Eastern Germany that were impressive. Again, I felt uncomfortable knowing some of the more personal details of the inhanitants, thinking that I would not have that kind of information out there about me and my family.
At that point the book lost me again, as I wondered how ethical is was to document such information for the purpose of the book. It dawned on me that this was going to be a literary museum ratehr than an edited story.
The main point about the house is that many parties lay claim to it, due to changes of laws and misappropriations at various stages in history.
The house has become somewhat of a symbol of the history of Germany. Like I would in a museum, I wanted to skip the parts that weren't of interest to me and that contained too many details.
The ending made up for it with a rather moving last chapter and epilogue. Definitely recommended for people interested in European history and probably better read, as it is easier to skip parts and to benefit from the illustrations.

Good and bad

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A fantastic and heart breaking look at the second world war,through the events and inhabitants of a house originally owned by a Jewish family.

Interesting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Harding brings the story to life. The narrator's German is good and so doesn't distract. Shame about the abrupt end, production fault.

fascinating

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A fantastic book and very well read.

The use of the house to tell its residents ' and Germany' s history is inspired.

The book reminds me a little of Len Deighton's "Winter" as a chronicle of German history through the experiences of families.

Most recommended.

Fantastic!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A history of Germany seen through the lives of families who lived in one house during the twentieth century.

German history in one house

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book was suggested to me by another author & I can see why. It is an astonishing piece of work, more than 100 years of German history told through the “eyes” of a small wooden house and the families that called it home.

An astonishing piece of work

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
So many parallels with my own family history. I have also memories of visiting family friends in the DDR and the hypocrisy of the Intershops that only took hard currency and the locals could only look longingly at the merchandise.
A great book that I will recommend to all my friends and family.

Not so much a story, more an education.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I read this book a few years ago but only visited the Alexander Haus last month. I was also fortunate enough to be allowed inside. Now I am reading it again and it is so much better being able to visual everything in my mind. It is a fascinating story I wish there could be a second book.

Fascinating

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews