A passionate memoir about Germany.

A superb portrait of twentieth century Germany seen through the prism of a house which was lived in, and lost, by five different families. A remarkable book.

In The House by the Lake, the simple villa loved and lost by Thomas Harding's family magically becomes the setting for the great clashes of the twentieth century, and for a technicolour cast – victims, villains and ordinary compromisers – struggling not to be crushed by them. Personal and panoramic, heart-wrenching yet uplifting, this is history at its most alive.

I loved this book. I admire the elegance of it, the hope, the honesty and the generousness with which every resident is given his or her place. It has made me think about our individual parts in the bigger story, and the coming and going-ness of things. It is a book that will stay with me for a very long time.

Diamond brilliant... the history of modern Germany as seen through the windows of the wooden house beside the lake. This is an extraordinary book.

A superb work of social history, told with tremendous narrative verve.

This is far more than a family memoir: by tracing the lives of the different families who lived there, Harding sheds light on the German 20th century, a tale of war, spies, murder and political, social and racial division . . . His account of the house is a superb work of social history, told with tremendous narrative verve.

Thomas Harding again pulls off the admirable feat of showing us anew the history of German's troubled twentieth century by focusing on a single story. With the narrative drive of a great novelist and the meticulous research of a great historian, Harding has crafted a moving, instructive and important book.

It would be hard to write an original and moving account of the tortured twentieth-century history of Germany. But, in The House by the Lake, Thomas Harding succeeds remarkably... a tragic and beautifully told history.

An unusual, evocative and moving account of modern Germany...The book succeeds remarkably, in providing a fresh and original insight into the twin totalitarian systems that disfigured Germany in the twentieth century.

A fascinating and revealing account of a century of German social and political history, told in an effortlessly accessible way.

This revelatory and compelling book is a clear must-read for anyone interested in German history during the past tumultuous century. The House By The Lake is a deeply moving story of endurance – of place as well as people. It is also uplifting as we learn of how the crumbling wreck of the house is restored to a haven of reconciliation and peace for the community and visitors to enjoy, and to heed its history which has been so brilliantly exposed.

[A] personal yet historically wide ranging account…it is Harding’s great achievement that he has painted a large canvas of history, but has done so with glinting individual stories. He has persevered in listening to those ‘quiet voices'.

This emblem of tyranny [the Berlin Wall] was just another fact of life for those living in its shadow. And that is, perhaps, the most important lesson of Harding’s book. History, which we learn about as a series of ideological abstractions, is lived concretely. This is why an ordinary house can serve so effectively as a symbol of the German experience.

An admirably clear and concise history of modern Germany. It’s an impressive feat of archival and investigative research. Fascinating revelations abound…[A] powerful book.

A gentle but rewarding book, carefully tuned into the marginal voices recorded in the history of one small house by a lake... often poignant, sometimes heartening, and never other than intimate.

A fascinating window on a tumultuous period.

Impressive... a deft history.

With the narrative drive of a great novelist and the meticulous research of a great historian, Harding has crafted a moving, instructive and very important book.

It would be hard to write an original and moving account of the tortured 20th-century history of Germany. But in The House by the Lake, Thomas Harding succeeds remarkably . . . It is a fitting and moving epitaph on a tragic and beautifully told history.

An original and highly personal take on this corner of history. Harding writes engagingly and sympathetically...an uplifting story.

The real history of twentieth-century Germany seen through the windows of one abode with the Berlin Wall right outside. It’s original and camera-vivid.

This is a compelling book…It’s a story of endurance – of place as well as people – and ultimately, it’s uplifting.

A brilliant way of coming at the history of Berlin and Germany itself, which shows how people coped with the vicissitudes of the regime.

Harding has recorded the fate of the house and its inhabitants, from the Weimar republic until reunification. This is German history in microcosm ... as exciting as a good historical novel.

An inspirational read: highly recommended.

A genuinely remarkable work of biographical innovation.

I’d like to reread Ruth Scurr’s John Aubrey every Christmas for at least the next five years: I love being between its humane pages, which celebrate both scholarly companionship and deep feeling for the past

Ruth Scurr’s innovative take on biography has an immediacy that brings the 17th century alive

Anyone who has not read Ruth Scurr’s John Aubrey can have a splendid time reading it this summer. Scurr has invented an autobiography the great biographer never wrote, using his notes, letters, observations – and the result is gripping

A triumph, capturing the landscape and the history of the time, and Aubrey’s cadence.

A brilliantly readable portrait in diary form. Idiosyncratic, playful and intensely curious, it is the life story Aubrey himself might have written.

Scurr knows her subject inside out.

The diligent Scurr has evidence to support everything… Learning about him is to learn more about his world than his modest personality, but Scurr helps us feel his pain at the iconoclasm and destruction wrought by the Puritans without resorting to overwrought language.

Acclaimed and ingeniously conceived semi-fictionalised autobiography… Scurr’s greatest achievement is to bring both Aubrey and his world alive in detail that feels simultaneously otherworldly and a mirror of our own age… It’s hard to think of a biographical work in recent years that has been so bold and so wholly successful.