The ending-well, lets just say that we're somewhat left hanging. At times, Nella seems almost too naive, and she and other characters change far too abruptly to be believable. First, we never really learn exactly who the miniaturist is or how she knows so much. While I'm glad that I stuck with it to the end, there were a number of problems. This novel was really slow-going at first, so slow that I almost gave up on it. and Nella begins to feel that she is living in a house of secrets. How does the miniaturist know so much about the Brandt home? Even more strangely, some of the figures representing the family start to change. When the package arrives, there are additional, unordered pieces that are astonishingly identical to reality. It's Nella's task to fill it, and she contacts by mail a miniaturist to create the first pieces.
When he returns, he presents her with a wedding gift that he believes will keep her busy: a cabinet designed like their house, but empty. Young Nella has arrived from the country, newly married, only to find that her husband Johannes is away on business and that her harsh sister-in-law, Marin, rules the roost. Is the miniaturist the key to their salvation.or the architect of their destruction?Įnchanting, beautiful, and exquisitely suspenseful, The Miniaturist is a magnificent story of love and obsession, betrayal and retribution, appearance and truth.īurton gives us a novel set in 17th century Amsterdam, a booming mercantile center. Only one person seems to see the fate that awaits them. In this repressively pious society where gold is worshipped second only to God, to be different is a threat to the moral fabric of society, and not even a man as rich as Johannes is safe. But as she uncovers its unusual secrets, she begins to understand - and fear - the escalating dangers that await them all. Johannes’ gift helps Nella to pierce the closed world of the Brandt household. To furnish her gift, Nella engages the services of a miniaturist - an elusive and enigmatic artist whose tiny creations mirror their real-life counterparts in eerie and unexpected ways. Johannes is kind yet distant, always locked in his study or at his warehouse office - leaving Nella alone with his sister, the sharp-tongued and forbidding Marin.īut Nella’s world changes when Johannes presents her with an extraordinary wedding gift: a cabinet-sized replica of their home. But her new home, while splendorous, is not welcoming. On a brisk autumn day in 1686, 18-year-old Nella Oortman arrives in Amsterdam to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious merchant trader Johannes Brandt. "There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed." Set in 17th-century Amsterdam - a city ruled by glittering wealth and oppressive religion - a masterful debut steeped in atmosphere and shimmering with mystery, in the tradition of Emma Donoghue, Sarah Waters, and Sarah Dunant.
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