Het huis van de zeven zusters

by Elle Eggels

Het huis van de zeven zusters, de debuutroman van Elle Eggels, speelt zich af in het Limburg van de jaren veertig en vijftig. Een zevental verweesde zusters runt daar een bakkerij, Martha, de oudste, heft een dochtertje overgehouden aan haar mislukte huwelijk met Sebastian en zorgt voor haar zes jongere zusters, die allen heimelijk verliefd op Sebastian waren. Naarmate ze ouder worden gaan ze stuk voor stuk op zoek naar een eigen liefde om vroeg of laat teleurgesteld naar de bakkerij terug te keren.

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit, Roman, Contemporary

191 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Sandra de koning-vd pol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Een indrukwekkend boek over familie zijn, ben benieuwd naar het vervolg...

[Juliajuliah · Rating 1 out of 5]

The review quoted on the front said that fans of “Like Water for Chocolate” would find resonances in ”The House of the Seven Sisters.” There were indeed resonances – but for me they were dim. This novel about women and food did not inspire me.

The story is about seven sisters who run the family bakery after their mother dies and their father leaves with no explanation. The sisters are all very different and they each have their own dreams and opportunities, but the strength of their sisterly bond draws them together.

There are some touches of other-worldliness and humour. There are triumphs and trials. But I didn’t find any substance or thought-provoking writing and I missed that.

At the end of the book one character says ”the tears had covered your soul like so much moss.”

I guess I prefer to read something that isn’t covered in so much moss.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ik kwam dit boek toevallig tegen - het zat ergens in mijn achterhoofd als een boek dat ik (ooit) wilde lezen- en heb het meegenomen op vakantie naar Parijs.Ik heb het in 2 dagen uitgelezen. Toen ik om te beginnen op de achterkant keek, zag ik (lichtelijk verontrust) een citaat uit een recensie uit Trouw: 'een echt vrouwenboek'. Eerlijk is eerlijk: het boek viel me alleszins mee. Een (lichtelijk) magisch-realistiche roman, autobiografie en geschiedenis van 7 zusters. Hun dromen, de harde realiteit van het leven, liefde en het verlangen ernaar, dood, doorzettingsvermogen, het vermogen ook om opnieuw te beginnen, over de innige familiebanden. Zeker de moeite waard om te lezen.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Derramó las lagrimas que su madre tendría que haber secado. Lloró porque hubiera querido ser una hermana de las seis muchachas que había tenido que cuidar como si fueran sus hijas. Lloró porque su padre le había negado toda ayuda. Tal vez lloró también por el hombre que se había marchado porque no había podido apoyarla. Y lloró porque hubiera deseado de todo corazón oir que era imprescindible y nadie se lo decía.

Es con esta novela que pude confirmar que me encantan las historias donde se relata el día a día monótono de las familias de siglos pasados, con sus antiguas actividades domésticas realizadas de maneras rebuscadas, al igual que los remedios caseros impartidos por las más viejas.
Son historias que me llenan de paz y me transportan a un entorno super confortable, haciéndome huir del presente.

[Tamara Piñón · Rating 2 out of 5]

Demasiado poético para mi, no pude terminarlo. Y creo que en algunas partes es mejor no describir tanto. Por ejemplo, poner que sintió náuseas de los nervios en vez de explicar cómo le subía la comida a la boca y describir el sabor.

[Cortney Nadig · Rating 2 out of 5]

It read like a diary that you weren't really interested in. If it were a real diary by someone that was related to you it would have been more interesting, but it was a little slow and I couldn't get that interested until I was about 3/4 the way through. The last few chapters were the best part of the book and showed the real characters of the women in the story. It wasn't awful but it wasn't fantastic. It was interesting to read about what life might have been like during a war and makes you realize how different it was from today.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book when it started, when I was learning of the seven sisters and each individual personality, but as it went on it was more tedious and random. Some storylines contradicted others. The timelines made no sense.
By the end I'm left convinced that this is some sort of memoir-fiction hybrid that skated across a life but never stayed in one place long enough to put together a whole story.

Oma was my favourite. She was so clearly Sebastian's mother or grandmother, no?

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED this book. Practically read it in one sitting. An intriguing concept and well-written -- even in its translation from the original. Enjoyed it quite a bit.

[Bellavida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic, well written story about the life of a woman and her siblings from childhood to old age in the Netherlands. I couldn't stop reading it was so interesting.

[Sue Maryon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was confussing at first. But when I figured it out, it was a emotional read. Martha had to raise her six sisters. while they raised her daughter.

[Tibbara's Den · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was expecting the story to be more focused on the seven sisters, but being told from the daughter's pov, it really felt more her story with a little background on the sisters. But even there, the writing lacked focus. You never really get a good sense of any of the sisters or the daughter. The characters and the story are bland. The author seems to have tried to make the story more interesting by just making every sister's love story tragic. The twist towards the end just came across as added for dramas sake. The narration about one of the sister's weight could have been done better. But the narration of the "fat" women and her "r-word" son was downright unacceptable. Especially given that they were the evil villians so naturally (eye roll), they would have these traits. By the end, I was slogging through the story, but I was so close to finishing that I just kept pushing through. Also, the weird magical realism element/dreams didn't seem to fit, and the random weird sexual things (looking at you dream goat and weird cross trauma and nun situation) were extremely off-putting.

[Simone Keijzer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Het is vlot geschreven en onderhoudend, maar niet het soort boek wat ik normaal zou lezen omdat het me niet aanspreekt.
Dingen die me ergerden waren:
1 x "hun" ipv "hen".
In het begin werd er gesproken van een "snijder" waarvan ik geen idee had wat dat was, maar verderop was het ineens de "coupeur" en daar was ik wel bekend mee, mijn zussen waren coupeuses. Het is niet zozeer dat ik niet wist wat een snijder was, maar het veranderen van de benaming halverwege het boek.
De persoon met Downsyndroom werd zowel achterlijk, Mongool als nog iets genoemd dat ik vergeten ben en ik had zelf liever gehad dat ze het bij één beschrijving had gehouden omdat het vanuit één persoon geschreven was. Kan me slecht voorstellen dat die meerdere beschrijvingen gebruikt.
Zelfde voor Caspar, hoewel daar meespeelde hoe andere dorpelingen hem zagen.
Maar wellicht is dit in nieuwere drukken en vertalingen anders en misschien ergeren anderen zich daar niet aan.

[Febe'S Mening · Rating 5 out of 5]

5*

I loved it so so so much!

Eigen boekenkast.

* "De gesprekken met hem waren voor haar het voertuig naar een andere wereld."

* "Ik was onzeker over het verdere verloop van mijn leven - als ik naar de keuzes die ik gehad zou hebben keek, leken ze me te beperkt."

* "Ik ga feesten met het leven zelf."

* "Ik had intussen wel begrepen dat dromen voor de nacht zijn, en dat die zich s'ochtends terugtrekken in de verborgen nissen van je gedachten die overdag wel iets anders aan hun hoofd hebben."

* "Martha en ik moesten altijd naar morgen kijken. Maar weet je, morgen komt nooit dichterbij als je steeds vooruit blijft kijken."

* "Martha begon zich zorgen te maken dat de jeugd van haar zusters in vreugdelooshied zou wegspoelen."

[Belinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have rated it 3.5 but in this instance uprating because I feel like the negative reviews have pushed down what is a solid family story (each to their own obviously). I started this book today and finished it today, so it kept me compelled enough to spend a day on the couch. A solid story about a family that goes through so much, there is good there is bad, you wonder sometimes whether they are doing the right thing and why they do the things they do. But inevitably come together as a family, good, bad, ugly, drinking, sharing stories, with faults and failures in the mix....Isn't this just life in general.

[Lucio Aru · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dunque.. ho trovato questo libro su una mensola della mia libreria e non so come ci sia finito, chi ce lo abbia portato. Non ho mai letto niente di questa autrice (olandese?), e questo romanzo/diario/racconto mi ha tenuto compagnia. Mi ha anche fatto sorridere e provare nostalgia. Le protagoniste delle storie sono ben caratterizzate, fragili e insieme indistruttibili. Ad unirle, il sangue. E insieme la vita. Talvolta, la morte.
Nordico, parecchio. Non lo sconsiglierei.

[Luíza · Rating 2 out of 5]

Um punhado de memórias de uma mulher sobre sua infância, numa ordem não exatamente cronológica. Tem uma escrita agradável mas não vejo um fio condutor, uma verdadeira história por trás, só realmente memórias.

[chambejd / Joy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really care for this book and that's why it took me just over two years to finish it. Maybe it is better in its original language?

[Merrill Medansky · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an unexpected story! Contrary to the book's cover, this is not really a book about food, but about family. Whether you like them or not.

[Judith the Book Gobbler · Rating 5 out of 5]

As Elle says, 'Every story is about love.'. Miss you my sister!

[Annegida · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heerlijk boek om te lezen! Uit ons minibiebje!

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Captured my interest. Had trouble keeping people sorted out

[Lalagè · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elle Eggels heeft een meeslepende vertelstijl, met hier en daar een mooie zin waarin gevoel wordt gemengd met de dagelijkse beslommeringen.

https://lalageleest.nl/2019/01/07/lee...

[Inge (Inge1990) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heel leuk boek, geschreven vanuit het oogpunt van de kleindochter van een vrouw die de bakker overnam nadat haar moeder stierf en haar vader wegliep. Ze neemt de zorg van haar zusters en de bakkerij over. Soms is het verwarrend omdat het is opgeschreven door de ogen van de kleindochter die luistert naar de verhalen. Omi komt later aanwaaien (geen echte oma) en praat in dialect. Op zich goed te volgen maar soms moet je een paar keer lezen of hardop uitspreken.
Later in het boek komt ineens de stiefmoeder opduiken om de bakkerij over te nemen. vrij kort beschreven had uitgebreider gekund.

In het epiloog gaat het levensverhaal van de kleindochter verder

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The House of the Seven Sisters by Elle Eggels is set in Holland. It's about a baker who abandons his seven daughters, leaving them to run the business. It spans WWII down to the '90s, yet it reads like a fairy tale, because so many characters are the butcher, the baker, the candle-stick maker. If they were cashiers, or system analysts, or HR people, it would definitely sound American and crisply modern. If you like stories that lead you from the narrator's childhood, wherein she tries to make sense of everything the older folks do, to her own days as a grandmother, and if you can keep the names of seven sisters straight, you might look up this one.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The more novels I read that have been published in another language, the more I wonder what gets lost in the translation. Sometimes I felt the language was coarse, or slightly off.

The story had potential, telling the story of seven sisters and the bond they have through the struggle for survival. I didn't care for the way the story looped between characters. I read another review that stated it felt like a compilation of vignette's and I felt that too. Sometimes it was hard to remember what was happening with one of the characters when the story looped through the other sisters lives. It didn't help that 4 of the sisters names started with a C either.

Overall, just ok.

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a gentle story about seven Dutch sisters whose mother dies giving birth to the twins. Their father abandons them and they need to survive by keeping the family bakery going. The book tells of each sister's comings and goings as each pursues her dreams, careers and relationships. I really enjoyed Elle's writing style. She has the most beautiful, but unique descriptive phrases. It was difficult at first to keep track of each sister's adventures. You might want to keep a list!

[Jaime · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the epic span of the story - it follows the lives of 7 sisters and their work, loves, joys, sorrows, relationships, etc., through the eyes of the child of one of them. But the narrative was mostly "telling," not "showing," and you don't get to really know the characters. I wouldn't call it boring, but maybe a bit plodding. I also think it could be a lot longer if there were more action and dialogue and delve deeper into each of the sisters and the characters in their lives.

[Ginger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a translation from Dutch.
A tale of sisterly love, loyalty and the strength of their committment to one another when they are left without parents and must run the family bakery business on their own.
The intriging part is the appearance of ghosts to guide special members of the family.

[Charlye Mondak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Average novel about seven sisters. I think if there had been fewer, the author could have focused more on the relationships between them, instead of just recounting events to show the differences between them. I read it because it was about sisters, but it just kind of made me sad that the bonds didn't seem to be there.

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I liked this book well enough, it didn't hang together in a coherent whole for me. The book reads like a series of vignettes in the lives of the seven sisters who are bound together in the family bakery by the oldest sister who feels the obligation to keep the bakery (and the sisters) on track.