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The House in Elmhurst
Paperback
General FictionLiterary Fiction
Publisher Price: $18.99
ISBN13: 9781066849215
Publisher: Ruth Delacourt Books
Published: Nov 5 2026
Pages: 362
Weight: 0.83
Height: 0.75 Width: 5.25 Depth: 8.00
Language: English
Becky Barnes has attachment issues.
She grows up in what appears to be an ordinary family in upstate New York. Her father is admired, her mother keeps the household running with quiet precision, and everyone believes Becky will fulfil the promise they see in her. Her family works hard to give her opportunities they never had. But Becky has a habit of blowing up her life. To the people who love her, she appears careless, reckless and even selfish: a daughter who cannot understand how much has been sacrificed for her.
But Becky experienced a childhood that nearly destroyed her. What looks like self-sabotage from the outside is bound up with insecurity, anxiety and the choices she learned to make before she was old enough to understand them. Her younger brother, Danny, remains closer to the family and carries grievances of his own. His childhood is marked by validation and approval, until he is left to live with consequences he did not create while Becky appears to escape them. Their father, Tom, has wronged the people who love him and allowed distance to harden into estrangement, but believes he loved his children and provided for them as best he could. Their mother believes the secret she chose to keep held the family together, even when doing so prevents its deepest problems from being confronted.
Becky eventually found a way through, despite all her setbacks, and found success in the most unlikely way. Years later, she's living in Paris. She's in a healthy relationship. She breaks patterns and becomes a good mother. She's finally drawn a line between her past and her potential. That is, until those old family systems, and old alliances, want her back. Can she risk all she's gained for the family that never apologised?
The House in Elmhurst is a literary novel about attachment, family loyalty and the uncomfortable truth that love and pain can coexist together.
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