The Tree House

Book: The Tree House

Author: Glenn Haybittle

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Synopsis

Max and Ada, ten-year-old neighbours, are engrossed in composing a book of spells in a tree house in Paris when the Nazis arrive to occupy the city. Max, the child of a rape and abandoned by his mother, is in foster care; Ada is Jewish.

Almost fifty years later Max, the black sheep of the family, summons his grandson to tell him the story of those years in Paris and reveal a guilty secret that has eaten away at him. His mind is now set on digging up the past and he wants Mark to accompany him across the English Channel. His dying wish is to shed light on the two missing women in his life: Ada and his mother. Mark though is struggling with his own existential crisis. There is a missing woman in his life too.

A deftly accomplished tightrope act of pathos and humour, The Tree House is a bewitching novel of loss and restitution, heritage and the hereafter.

Review

I received a ebook copy of the book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

The story starts off when Mark Mets his grandfather Max. Mark’s grandfather was always considered mentally unstable by even Mark’s parents. His grandfather was Mark’s favorite person in childhood, but one day he left and came back only 5 years later. So Mark is surprised when Max wants to meet him. Max tells him about his childhood and wants to ask a favor of Mark.

Max lived in Venice with his guardians Camille and Paul. His real mother, Elisa was a dancer, she gave him  up because  he was a child of rape. Max’s best friend was Ada, his next door neighbor. The Tree House which was built by Ada’s father was their playground. They spent most of the time in the treehouse with their  book of spells. Ada’s family was Jewish and that was the time when being Jewish meant you were discriminated. Max felt bad that Ada was treated differently, but he never had the courage to stand up for her. Then one day something happened after which Max never saw Ada again, he still feels guilty for that act.

Interspersed with this narrative, we also get to see flashbacks of Mark’s life, how a single act changed his whole life.

Why does Max feel guilty?
What happened to Mark?
What favor will Max ask of Mark?
Will both grandfather and grandson get closure?
Read to find out.

I fell in love with the cover and the name , so requested this book. Usually i don’t read about war and Holocaust, but i thought i would give this a try. The book started slow,but later it was good. The friendship between Max and Ada was so sweet. I loved the twist at the end.I felt bad for Max, he had so much guilt in him. The parallel between the lives of the grandfather and grandson was good. It is a short book which talks of childhood hood,loss and guilt.

 

Favourite Quotes

“Memories are like the heart;you mustn’t ask too much of them.Just let them get on quietly with their schooling”

“Love was a great mystery to us.Probably the biggest and the most alluring mystery of all.We talked about it a lot without understanding it was what we felt for each other “