The Miniaturist: Jessie Burton

[poliphilo]

An innocent young girl marries a man she hardly knows and is transported to his house of secrets. Well, you think, this is archetypal and can go one of two ways; it'll either be Beauty and the Beast or Bluebeard- but there you'd be wrong- because the story as it unfolds is nothing like as straightforward. The people are complicated, the period detail (we're in late 17th century Amsterdam) convincing- and what are we to make of the elusive and apparently all-seeing miniaturist who keeps sending our heroine gifts for her doll's house? This is an odd, unclassifiable book- with twists and turns you can see coming and characters you can't. It's about empowerment, about history, about freedom and predestination, about business, sex, friendship, art, food- and...and...

And it leaves you wondering.

This is Jessie Burton's first published novel. She's good. She's very, very good.

Comments

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

Hm. This sounds like one I need to look into. I'll put it on my list, thanks!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

My sis recommended it to me. We don't normally like the same books, but we agree on this one.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Yes, thank you for this. It sounds like one I would like to read.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'll be looking out for what she does next.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Burton's latest book is The Muse (2016): " Odelle Bastien, a Caribbean émigré living in London in 1967, discovers a painting rumored to be the work of Isaac Robles, a young artist of immense talent and vision whose mysterious death has confounded the art world for decades. As she tries to sort through the conflicting stories of its discovery, she does not know who to believe, including her art gallery colleague, Marjorie Quick. The mystery surrounding the painting includes Olive Schloss, the daughter of a Viennese art dealer and English heiress, who lived in a small coastal Spanish village in 1936, just as Spain was heading into civil war; two illegitimate children of the local landowner, who become part of the Schloss family’s lives; and deceit, lust, greed, and betrayal."

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Oh splendid! Thank you for telling me. I'm going to download it straight away.

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

Interested to know how you find The Muse...I'm struggling with it.