The House of the Seven Sisters

***The perfect summer read - a life-affirming, heart-warming book*** Seven orphaned sisters run a bakery in 1950s rural Holland. Martha, the oldest, has a daughter from a failed marriage, Emma, and we view the sisters' story through her eyes. As the sisters grow older they all leave the bakery in search of self-fulfillment and a love of their own, only to return disillusioned. None of the men who catch their eye - the married mayor, a 'cowboy' con man, the hunchbacked boy next door - stand the test of time.After years of drudgery the sisters transform the bakery into a successful supermarket, but just when they seem to be finally getting on top of things their father's Belgian widow shows up with her retarded son and tries to claim the store for herself.The House of the Seven Sisters is a remarkable, magical novel about seven mysteriously exotic women who, both independently and as a family, try to come to terms with the past and carve a path for the future.