- Published: 23 April 2020
- ISBN: 9781473569805
- Imprint: Vintage Digital
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 288
The See-Through House
My Father in Full Colour
- Published: 23 April 2020
- ISBN: 9781473569805
- Imprint: Vintage Digital
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 288
A sad, funny, utterly fascinating book about families, home and how to say goodbye
Mark Haddon
This unusual memoir is both a beguiling account of an adored yet maddening parent and his complex family history, and an affecting portrait of the grief that follows his death
The Bookseller
A luminous book, full of light and colour, and a remarkable reflection on childhood and untold stories
Edmund de Waal
A charming account of a daughter, a house and a fastidious dad: Secrecy is not a trait found in Klein's writing, which is at times disarmingly honest. Her openness pays off - we get a full and nuanced portrait of her life and all those in it
Lucy Knight, The Sunday Times
Original, moving and bracingly honest... often hilarious... Each room has particular memories for Klein. And her journey through them is also a psychological quest, an attempt to understand how the house shaped her personality and whether she can ever get free of her attachment
Blake Morrison, Guardian
An honest, piercing account of love, death and everything in between... there is an undercurrent which makes this book special. It weaves the complexity of relationships and family into its pages. At its most compelling, it tackles psychodynamics, addressing the influence of earlier encounters and memories on future behaviour and emotions... A poignant homage to her father’s legacy
Amira Hashish, Evening Standard
A touching and timely account of familial love, The See-Through House arrives with all the greater power in our period of lockdown, compelling readers to appreciate the importance of home and family anew.
TalkTalk
A touching and timely account of familial love, The See-Through House arrives with all the greater power in our period of lockdown, compelling readers to appreciate the importance of home and family anew
UK Press Sydication
A moving study in grief
Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday
In this remarkable, moving tribute to a house and a father, Shelley Klein taps in to three universal emotions: our lifelong bond to the house we grew up in; our sense that our childhood home and our parents are intertwined; and our feelings of profound bereftness at saying goodbye to both parents and house ... beautifully illustrated ... Deeply affectionate
Ysenda Maxtone Graham, Daily Mail
The See-Through House is part of a lineage of central European history filtered through its buildings... In its curious mix of chicken soup Jewishness and Swinging Sixties creativity it also creates a very vivid picture of a minimal modernism almost overloaded with meaning
Edwin Heathcote, Financial Times
The See-Through House is a beautiful testament to a father-daughter bond, an exploration of the complexities of grief and, all together, a quite stunning account of a one of a kind house
Aisling McGuire, Wee Review
Enthralling... a fascinating exploration of the influence of a domestic setting on mind and spirit, as well as of a fraught father-daughter relationship
Christina Hardyment, The Times
[A] finespun, magical new grief memoir... a beautifully structured book... Klein is a witty observer, even in the case of her own sorrow, which she rifles through and puzzles over with wry candour. Desolation and humour are expertly balanced throughout... I suppose it is strange that grief should produce such a life-affirming book, but it has. Read it for the solace it contains, or for its captivating descriptions. Either way, it's a delight.
Lucy Davies, The Telegraph
Shelley is a deft writer, especially when conjuring texture and Kodachrome colours
Nick Sharp, World of Interiors
A journey through loss and questions of belonging, it's lit with colour and light
NET-A-PORTER
A moving memoir of loss
Daily Telegraph