The House by the Lake

A beautiful picture book adaptation of Thomas Harding's Costa-shortlisted biography, exquisitely illustrated by Britta Teckentrup.

Thomas Harding first shared this remarkable story in his Costa-shortlisted biography The House by the Lake – now he has rendered it into a deeply moving picture book for young readers. On the outskirts of Berlin, a wooden cottage stands on the shore of a lake. Over the course of a century, this little house played host to a loving Jewish family, a renowned Nazi composer, wartime refugees and a Stasi informant; in that time, a world war came and went, and the Berlin Wall was built a stone's throw from the cottage's back door. With words that read like a haunting fairy tale, and magnificent illustrations by Britta Teckentrup, this is the astonishing true story of the house by the lake.

About the Author

Thomas Harding is an author and journalist who has written for the Financial Times, The Sunday Times (London), The Washington Post, and The Guardian, among other publications. He cofounded a television station in Oxford and for many years was an award-winning documentary maker. He also ran a local newspaper in West Virginia, winning the West Virginia Association of Justice’s Journalist of the Year Award, before moving back to England in 2011, where he lives with his family.

About the Illustrator

Britta Teckentrup's strikingly beautiful picture books have been published in more than twenty countries. They include Tree, Bee, Moon, Ocean and Under the Same Sky, which was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal. Born in Hamburg and educated in London at St. Martin's College and the Royal College of Art, she currently lives with her family in Berlin.