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.