I Am The House - by Catherine B Harper (Paperback)

About the Book

I Am The House spans 400 years, with insights about the relationship we have with our homes.

Book Synopsis

For anyone who has wondered, "if these walls could talk," the revelations are disclosed here in I Am The House, a unique tale told by an 1870s house and co-narrated by a Human House Empath. Over a four hundred years span, a series of powerfully drawn characters engage readers in exploring themes basic to our human condition: prevailing over adversity, navigating family dynamics, facing the challenges of preservation, finding the little joys in daily life, and intriguing insights about the relationship we have with our homes and their own housetories.

Review Quotes

At its heart, this 400-year historical saga set on the North Fork at the east end of Long Island is a passionate plea for the preservation of historic houses, presented as the story of four such buildings and the families who occupied them over the years, but told from two points of view - the houses themselves, and an empathetic narrator who comments on the architecture, the occupants, the development of the town and the area, and the importance to the present of all that past. Elegant smooth-flowing prose is embellished with richly seasoned details that track the passing years. Both informative and entertaining, the book is a nuanced exposition on the interplay of humans and houses, ambition and architecture, but inevitably people and their passions. An engrossing read.

-- Andrew Alpern, an architectural historian, architect, and attorney, whose latest book is Emery Roth's New York Apartment Buildings