A House for Alice

A Novel

By: Diana Evans

Narrated by: Natalie Simpson

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • Longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction​ • A sweeping and beautifully rendered exploration of home and yearning, following the fracturing of a family upon the demise of its patriarch

"Each character here is richly and deeply drawn...This is a novel that encourages us to stand in life’s burning doorways, and to think long before we walk away or walk through.”—New York Times

In the early hours of June 14, 2017, the world watches as flames leap up the sides of a residential high-rise in West London, consuming Grenfell Tower and many of the lives within it. Across town, an earlier spark has caught fire. A cigarette left burning in an ashtray. A table strewn with post-it reminders and old newspapers. And one Cornelius Winston Pitt—estranged husband, complicated dad, and Pitt family patriarch—takes his final breaths alone.

These twin tragedies open Diana Evans’s A House for Alice, an aching portrait of a family of women shaken by loss and searching for closure. At the novel’s center is Alice herself, the Pitt matriarch who, after fifty years in England, now longs to live out her final years in her homeland of Nigeria. Her three daughters are torn on the issue of whether she stays or goes, and while youngest sibling Melissa also grapples with the embers of her own failed relationship, the Pitt family’s foundational pillars—of trust, love, and cultural identity—begin to crack.

Intimately drawn and set against a fraught political backdrop, yet equally full of hope, humor, and humanity, A House for Alice traces the scars of grief and betrayal across generations and uncovers the secrets we keep from those closest to us.

©2023 Diana Evans (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

A Most Anticipated Book: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Good Morning America

"Each character here is richly and deeply drawn, with histories and personalities so fully realized that it’s a pleasure to get to know them...This is a novel that encourages us to stand in life’s burning doorways, and to think long before we walk away or walk through.”
—New York Times

"A beautiful, deep exploration of home and fractured families." —Good Morning America

“Twin domestic tragedies entwine in this richly loving and fraught novel. The 2017 Grenfell Towers fire in London looms as Diana Evans juxtaposes this disaster with the death of a patriarch whose loss complicates the actions of his wife, Alice, who longs to return at last to her homeland, Nigeria.” —Boston Globe

I’m happy to have found Diana Evans

Wonderful story about the Nigerian community, living in England, with excellent narration. I look forward to reading more of her books.

The complete package

This audible book is not to be missed. Evans is an eloquent and inventive writer. This is a story of the complexity of family, marriage and te politics if being Black in the UK.

The performance was amazing!!

Beautifully written, relatable, expansive. I loved how plot weaves in and out of the lives of the characters. The imagery was stunning. Highly recommend!

Just awful, and it’s rare I really dislike a book

I was prepared to recommend to my book club before listening. The premise sounds wonderful but the book is incredibly boring and tedious. The narrator is dull, too. I couldn’t finish.