HOUSE OF GOLD by Natasha Solomons

Note: I am not a paid reviewer, and I have purchased this title to read for my personal enjoyment.

The Goldbaum family’s wealth and power is linked throughout Europe in the years before WW1. Beautifully textured descriptions of the trappings of the family’s gilded lifestyle and renowned horticultural displays drop us squarely in the Goldbaum world. Greta of the Viennese Goldbaums is sent to London to marry distant cousin Albert, a man she doesn’t know, much less love. She must take her rightful place in society, e.g., her desire to nurse is scoffed at: ‘she was a Goldbaum, not a milking cow.’

It’s tricky to generate sympathy for tensions in the fabulously wealthy world, as characters without resource constraints feel kind of hollowed out. War comes, and the Goldbaum family doesn’t completely evade the misery of the front lines, presenting an element of contrast to layers of opulence. And anti-Semitism confronts even the elite Goldbaums. The scope of the tale is a Follett-like family epic, and early in the book we have been introduced to a number of significant characters who seem to have vanished as the story concludes.