House of Gold

by Natasha Solomons

Overview

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

From the New York Times bestselling author of The House at Tyneford, an epic family saga about a headstrong Austrian heiress who will be forced to choose between the family she's made and the family that made her at the outbreak of World War I.

The start of a marriage. The end of a dynasty.

It's 1911 and Greta Goldbaum is forced to move from glittering Vienna to damp England to wed Albert, a distant cousin. The Goldbaum family are one of the wealthiest in the world, with palaces across Europe, but as Jews and perpetual outsiders they know that strength lies in family. At first defiant and lonely, slowly Greta softens toward Albert, and as the wild paths and untamed beauty of Greta's new English garden begin to take shape, so too does their love begin to blossom. But World War I looms and even the influential Goldbaums cannot alter its course. For the first time in two hundred years, the family will find itself on opposing sides, and Greta will have to choose: the family she's created, or the one she left behind.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780735212978
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/23/2018
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

A screenwriter and novelist, Natasha Solomons lives in Dorset, England, with her husband and two children. She is the New York Times bestselling author of four novels, including The House at Tyneford and The Song of Hartgrove Hall.

Read an Excerpt

1911
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "House of Gold"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Natasha Solomons.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

09/03/2018
Set on the eve of WWI, this engrossing family epic by Solomons (The House at Tyneford) draws back the curtains on the opulent life of a European banking dynasty just as its world begins to shatter. The scions of the House of Goldbaum know their duties: marry other Goldbaums and serve the family. Even rebellious Greta Goldbaum will not risk her place in the family, and she obediently leaves her beloved Vienna to become the perfect English wife for her cousin, Albert. She had hoped he harbored a wild streak like their French cousin Henri or shared her brother Otto’s sweetness, but she finds his passion for beetles and butterflies as horrifying as he finds her penchant for not wearing shoes. Their opposites-attract romance is palpable from their first encounter, and the turmoil roiling around them is just as captivating. Across Europe, the Goldbaums navigate what the reader knows to be inevitable: Russian pogroms, socialist reform, and the Great War itself. Though the family itself is close-knit, isolation permeates their lives—as Jewish people in an increasingly anti-Semitic Europe, as oligarchs in a democratizing world, as individuals drowning beneath expectation. In Solomons’s skillful hands, the plot winds around Europe and blossoms into a poignant portrait of characters stuck in an unavoidable paroxysm of global change. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

2018-07-31

A multilayered novel tracking the evolution of a lavishly wealthy Jewish banking family in the years preceding and during World War II.

The House of Goldbaum—a banking institution stretching across Europe—has financed railways and palaces and abetted world leaders; its influence is so ingrained that "on dull days, it was said, they hired the sun, just for themselves." The business maintains its dominance by adhering to the old ways: communicating almost exclusively through letters written in Yiddish; prioritizing its Jewish heritage; and, most importantly, orchestrating marriages between Goldbaum houses to keep the businesses tightly linked. It's this custom that spurs the marriage of headstrong Greta Goldbaum, from the Austrian house, to the second son of the London branch, buttoned-up, fastidious Albert. From the start, it's an uneasy match. Greta wanders through the London Goldbaum mansion "perpetually off-kilter," while Albert exhibits a greater interest in trapping butterfly specimens than in sleeping with his new wife. Meanwhile, rumblings of war affect business. The German government is seeking a loan to shore up its army; pogroms rage across Russia; and the Goldbaums vacillate between openly wielding political influence and "labor[ing] unobtrusively behind the seat of power, instrumental but overlooked." It seems just as Greta and Albert learn to tolerate and then love one another, the Continent is forced into an arms race, compelling the Goldbaum houses to weigh allegiances to family and nation—and consider the waning scope of their influence in a world altered by war. In perspectives that alternate among Greta, Albert, and other well-constructed characters—Greta's brother Otto; cousin Henri; and Karl, a Viennese sewer rat—Solomons (The Song of Hartgrove Hall, 2015) provides an achingly detailed yet sweeping narrative examining the anxieties of war and crumbling of the Old World order. Despite writing stilted dialogue, Solomons has an uncanny way of lulling readers into a complex sense of prewar unease—from the Goldbaums' mansion to the Jewish Poor Boys' Home in Vienna—making for a rewarding look into the fragility of power and the complexities of Jewish identity in the early 20th century.

An absorbing saga.

Kirkus Reviews

A delicious family saga.” —New York Post

“Sweeping....Filled with rich period detail, vivid characterization, and heartfelt emotion, this meticulously researched novel is highly recommended for fans of historical fiction.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“The past comes alive in this beautifully written novel. . . A dazzling saga rich in detail and drama.” —Woman’s World

“Once again, Natasha Solomons brings the past alive with vivid immediacy. House of Gold is a sweeping, heartbreaking story of love, war, and duty. I will long remember the poetry of its evocative details and the striking complexity of its characters.”—Lauren Belfer, New York Times bestselling author of And After the Fire, recipient of the National Jewish Book Award

“Solomons is one of the best writers of historical fiction working today. Family dynasties, European politics, old war estates, love affairs, worlds on the brink of change: Solomons knows how to draw readers into a particular place and time. And once you’re there, you just don’t want to leave.” —Goop

“A sweeping epic.” —Refinery29

“A beautifully told narrative . . . A poignant, heartbreaking tale of love [and] duty.” —Gulf Coast Today

"Engrossing...In Solomons’s skillful hands, the plot winds around Europe and blossoms into a poignant portrait of characters stuck in an unavoidable paroxysm of global change."—Publishers Weekly

“Sweeping and intimate....A poignant, beautifully written story of love and duty.”—Booklist

“An achingly detailed yet sweeping narrative....A rewarding look into the fragility of power and the complexities of Jewish identity in the early 20th century. An absorbing saga.”—Kirkus Reviews

"An absorbing family saga...The characters are rounded and well-developed, and Greta Goldbaum is a spirited and appealing creation.”—Historical Novels Review

From the Publisher

★ 09/01/2018
This sweeping historical novel, loosely based on the Rothschild family, tells of the Goldbaums, a dynasty of bankers regarded as European royalty. With banks in England, France, Austria, Germany, and Russia, the family controls much that happens on the European stage. As Goldbaum men become bankers, the women marry Goldbaum men to make more Goldbaums. In 1911, Greta Goldbaum of Vienna is sent to England to marry Albert of the London branch. Spirited Greta yearns to break free from the restraints of society and family obligations. Nevertheless, she marries the more serious Albert and resigns herself to a loveless life. Greta and Albert grow closer when her creation of a garden at their new home aligns with his hobby of collecting butterflies and insects. But as they begin a family of their own, World War I breaks out, tearing Greta and the Goldbaums asunder. Greta's beloved brother Otto fights for Austria on the Russian front, while Albert, sent to procure American financial backing, crosses the dangerous Atlantic. VERDICT Filled with rich period detail, vivid characterization, and heartfelt emotion, this meticulously researched novel by Solomons (The House at Tyneford) is highly recommended for fans of historical fiction.—Catherine Coyne, Mansfield P.L., MA

Library Journal