House on Endless Waters

A Novel

By: Emuna Elon

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

“Elon powerfully evokes the obscurity of the past and its hold on the present as we stumble through revelation after revelation with Yoel. As we accompany him on his journey…we share in his loss, surprise, and grief, right up to the novel’s shocking conclusion.” —The New York Times Book Review

In the tradition of The Invisible Bridge and The Weight of Ink, “a vibrant, page-turning family mystery” (Jennifer Cody Epstein, author of Wunderland) about a writer who discovers the truth about his mother’s wartime years in Amsterdam, unearthing a shocking secret that becomes the subject of his magnum opus.

Renowned author Yoel Blum reluctantly agrees to visit his birthplace of Amsterdam to promote his books, despite promising his late mother that he would never return to that city. While touring the Jewish Historical Museum with his wife, Yoel stumbles upon footage portraying prewar Dutch Jewry and is astonished to see the youthful face of his beloved mother staring back at him, posing with his father, his older sister…and an infant he doesn’t recognize.

This unsettling discovery launches him into a fervent search for the truth, shining a light on Amsterdam’s dark wartime history—the underground networks that hid Jewish children away from danger and those who betrayed their own for the sake of survival. The deeper into the past Yoel digs up, the better he understands his mother’s silence, and the more urgent the question that has unconsciously haunted him for a lifetime—Who am I?—becomes.

Part family mystery, part wartime drama, House on Endless Waters is “a rewarding meditation on survival” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) and a “deeply immersive achievement that brings to life stories that must never be forgotten” (USA TODAY).

Critic reviews

"In this audiobook, Israeli novelist Yoel Blum visits the Jewish Museum in Amsterdam, where he stumbles upon a video image of his family during WWII. His shock at seeing another boy in the footage compels him to dig into his family's past. Narrator Jonathan Davis artfully portrays Yoel's intelligent introspection as he uncovers stunning truths about his family and racial heritage. Davis's gravitas lends credence to Yoel's emotional journey, and to the deplorable persecution of Jews in Holland during the war."

Time is the Endless River

What appears to be confusing to some readers (see other reviews), is, I think, part of the structured design of the book...as the main character, a writer of what begins as a history of Holocaust Jews in Holland during the war turns into a history of his own family's life in the time period...and he and we watch as the boundaries between time periods -- then and the now of the writing -- we experience along with the internal writer the walls that he/we think and want to think keep our consciousness within our apparent control, begin to dissolve...and that an apparent confusion appears in the timeline is not confusion but a deliberate attempt to blur the boundaries that we want to trust define who each of us is to his to her own life. The internal writer offers that he doesn't know if the existence he is having in the moment is real or if it is some rather the extension of a consciousness of a real person during the period about which he writes...as if the man about to be hung lives an entire life during the moment the floor is pulled from under him and the moment his neck breaks. Jonathan Davis turns in an extraordinarily measured and sympathetic reading of a deeply meaningful book.

A little hard to follow

I think this is a book that should be read, although the narrator was exceptionally good. It's just a bit hard to follow because the focus is constantly changing. But it would be worth buying the book after listening, the story is that good.

thank you for this book

I am pleased with how you wrote this book. It kept me up all night!

Must Read for Today

About 140,000 Jews were in Holland as WWII began. Only 38,000 survived! Story gets you thinking. Why are we talking about every minority except the Jews when their persecution is so close in history that the world is still prosecuting?
Also, this book is a modern 1984, showing how a totalitarian regime works.

Interesting, worth the listen, but not great.

The story is compelling, but was often difficult to follow. I’m not sure if this is due to the narrator’s approach to the book or if it is simply a book that needs to be read so when it goes back and forth between the main character’s life and his writing the reader is clear. I intend to read the book because I’m sure I missed something in the listening. Some books need the touch and sight of the words in order to convey their true meaning.