Grandfather's House is Clive Doucet's follow-up to My Grandfather's Cape Breton, published in 1980 and continuously in print. Now a grandfather himself, Doucet muses about this role. While he believed as a child that to be a grandfather was to own a farm by the sea, he now realizes that his job as a grandfather is to tell stories. In doing so, he traces the history of the Doucets back to Acadie, then to the early years of the Cape Breton village of Grand tang and to modern-day Ottawa.
Doucet's musings are interspersed with poetry, short stories, and with summer adventures with his grandchildren in Grand tang. He paints a loving portrait of his grandfather's village and the people, past and present, who make it a vibrant community. The themes of resilience and rejuvenation permeate the memoir, which is both rooted in nostalgia and filled with hope for a more sustainable future.