The House by the Lake: The Story of a Home and a Hundred Years of History

"The incredible story of how a house was witness to German history" Telegraph

"A touching picturebook which shows children that large events can have repercussions even in small and unheralded places" Wall Street Journal

A beautiful picture-book adaptation of Thomas Harding's Costa-shortlisted biography for adults, exquisitely illustrated by Britta Teckentrup.

On the outskirts of Berlin, a wooden cottage stands on the shore of a lake. Over the course of a century, this little house played host to a loving Jewish family, a renowned Nazi composer, wartime refugees and a Stasi informant; in that time, a world war came and went, and the Berlin Wall was built a stone's throw from the cottage's back door.

Thomas Harding first shared this remarkable story in his Costa-shortlisted biography The House by the Lake – now he has rendered it into a deeply moving picture-book for young readers. With words that read like a haunting fairy-tale, and magnificent artwork by Britta Teckentrup, this is the astonishing true story of the house by the lake.

"An atmospheric and ultimately uplifting tale with delicate, ethereal images" The Financial Times

PRAISE FOR THE ORIGINAL BIOGRAPHY OF THE HOUSE BY THE LAKE:

A Radio 4 Book of the Week

Named a Best Book of the Year by:
The Times >> New Statesman >> Daily Express >> Commonweal magazine

Shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award 2015

Longlisted for the Orwell Prize 2016

Over 50 five-star reviews on Amazon

"A passionate memoir." – Neil MacGregor

"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." – Tom Holland

"A book that will stay with me for a very long time." – Rachel Joyce

"A superb work of social history." – The Sunday Times

"Diamond brilliant ... an extraordinary book." – Sunday Express

"A deft history of a cabin containing many secrets." – Independent

"A fascinating window on a tumultuous period" – Financial Times

"Original, personal, moving and uplifting" – Literary Review

"This is a history that is often poignant, sometimes heartening, and never other than intimate." – Spectator

"An extraordinary book…. Harding has extracted the past from the dust that collects between floorboards and from layers of peeling wallpaper.” – Washington Post

SEE ALSO THOMAS HARDING'S NEW BIOGRAPHY, LEGACY:

"I was riveted: this is a fascinating social history." – Nigella Lawson

"Written with love and imagination ... a masterclass in historical empathy." – TLS

"Nobody quite stirs the soup of historical detail like Harding." – Express

Featured in The Bookseller's November previews. The Bookseller

A children’s book illustrator who has worked on the Teletubbies and the Tweenies, Britta Teckentrup is a graduate of the Royal College of Art. Her first book was described by Publishers Weekly as "magic", and she hasn't looked back since. Author and illustrator of over 60 children's books published in over 20 countries, her work is both elegant and child-like. Britta lives in Berlin with her husband and son.

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