AUGUST 2014 - AudioFile
The listener is transported to Amsterdam 1686. The story starts with 18-year-old Nella Oortman, who is excitedly preparing to embark on her new married life with Johannes Brandt, a merchant. The expressive narration of Davina Porter soon shows that this is not to be a conventional marriage. The Amsterdam setting takes a back seat in this story of developing relationships between a cast of characters who become increasingly reliant on each other. Porter's narration identifies each individual distinctively and sympathetically. When Nella’s husband gives her a cabinet-sized replica of their house, Nella finds herself becoming increasingly involved with the man who makes the miniature furniture she fills it with. K.J.P. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
06/23/2014
Late 17th-century Amsterdam is the sumptuous backdrop for this debut novel about a young Dutch girl from the village of Assendelft, Nella Oortman, who is chosen to be the bride of Johannes Brandt, a wealthy merchant with a shocking secret. Not long after Nella’s arrival in the city, her enigmatic husband presents her with a beautifully wrought cabinet, an exact replica of the house in which they live with Brandt’s sister, Marin, and their loyal servants. Nella engages a miniaturist to fill it and begins to encounter mysteries no one is willing to explain, secrets in which everyone in the household is implicated. The elusive miniaturist, too, seems to know more than Nella, as reflected in the tiny dolls and furniture he creates for the cabinet. The artisan may even be able to predict the future: he sends Nella portentous objects she has not commissioned, such as a cradle and a perfect replica of Brandt’s beloved dog stained with blood. As in all good historical novels, the setting is a major character; in this case the city of Amsterdam, with its waterways and warehouses, confectioners’ shops, and kitchens, teems with period detail. Myriad plot twists involve Brandt’s commercial activities, especially the stores of precious sugar cones from Surinam, and the tragic, fatal consequences of illicit love affairs. Strangely enough, however, the central mystery, the miniaturist’s uncanny knowledge of the future, is never solved, and the reader is left unsatisfied. (Aug.)
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Jessie Burton’s debut novel…has all of the trappings of a historical page-turner: a rich setting in 17th-century Amsterdam, a plot inspired by an antique “cabinet house” located at the renowned Rijksmuseum, and a diverse cast of characters…a perfect amount of authentic detail and a plot that speeds along.
Washington Post
Burton gives her narrative the propulsive drive of a thriller, but her distinctive prose conveys deeper, harder answers than a whodunit. This fine historical novel mirrors the fullness of life, in which growth and sorrow inevitably are mingled.
Entertainment Weekly (Must List)
Seventeenth-century Amsterdam comes alive in this meticulously researched, enchantingly told tale.
My Friends are Fiction
A suspenseful and moving read.
The Gilmore Guide To Books
A magical, intricate marvel of perfection… with luxurious prose that immerses the reader in the cold, damp of Amsterdam… A book that enchants from beginning to end.
Shelf Awareness
In Jessie Burton’s atmospheric debut, The Miniaturist, the powers of love and obsession, sins and secrets, loyalty and forgiveness bind together a cast of sympathetic characters who all have a part to play in a collectively chilling conclusion.
Tampa Bay Times
The Miniaturist is an impressive debut… Burton has created a world that, like the cabinet house, draws us in until we feel the dread and mystery and wonder that surround Nella.
New York Daily News
Jessie Burton nimbly transports contemporary social issues to the 17th century where a costume drama rich in historical detail is embellished with supernatural intrigue…The Miniaturist is a late-harvest summer delight.
BookPage
The Miniaturist excels in depicting Amsterdam and its wealthy upper class, and lovers of art and of Amsterdam will be drawn to Burton’s imaginative story, which flows as effortlessly as water down a canal.
Dallas Morning News
In The Miniaturist, Burton uses a historical object - the real Petronella Oortman’s cabinet house in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum - as the springboard for a fantastically spun tale of love and mystery. It’s a story that astutely reflects our own age’s obsessions and prejudices, and it’s one not to be missed.
Washington Independent Review of Books
The Miniaturist is a masterpiece of atmosphere and tension …. The themes Burton explores are as relevant today as they were long ago …. a thoroughly engaging, beautifully written work of historical fiction.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Rich in 17th century atmosphere…Debut novelist Jessie Burton has a terrific subject... All those severe portraits of people in dark clothes and starched white ruffs, along with those glossy, death-scented still lifes, spring to life.
Entertainment Weekly
The Miniaturist is one of the year’s most hyped novels, and it’s easy to see why. Burton conjures every scent and crackle of Nella’s world. A-
New York magazine/Vulture.com
As in Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, the pleasure lies in giving in to well-wrought illusions, and the result is a beach read with meat on its bones - perfect for the Labor Day transition from play to work.
Booklist
A standout portrayal of the wide range of women’s ingenuity.
Good Housekeeping
[A] haunting debut.
Hannah Kent
‘Utterly transporting...one of those rare debut novels that excels in every regard. The past is brought to life in potent, sensory detail: one feels steeped in it. Burton’s prose beguiles the reader...My first instinct on finishing this book was to immediately read it again.
AUGUST 2014 - AudioFile
The listener is transported to Amsterdam 1686. The story starts with 18-year-old Nella Oortman, who is excitedly preparing to embark on her new married life with Johannes Brandt, a merchant. The expressive narration of Davina Porter soon shows that this is not to be a conventional marriage. The Amsterdam setting takes a back seat in this story of developing relationships between a cast of characters who become increasingly reliant on each other. Porter's narration identifies each individual distinctively and sympathetically. When Nella’s husband gives her a cabinet-sized replica of their house, Nella finds herself becoming increasingly involved with the man who makes the miniature furniture she fills it with. K.J.P. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2014-06-26
A talented new writer of historical fiction evokes 17th-century Amsterdam, the opulent but dangerous Dutch capital, where an innocent young wife must navigate the intrigues of her new household. "Every woman is the architect of her own fortune," reads 18-year-old Nella Oortman in a message that will gather meaning like a rolling stone as this novel progresses. It comes from the peculiarly knowledgeable artisan who is creating miniature objects for a dollhouse-sized version of her new home, which Nella received as a wedding gift. Hastily married to a wealthy older merchant, Johannes Brandt, after her father's death left her provincial family struggling, Nella arrives alone in Amsterdam, readying herself for her unknown husband's demands. Instead, she finds herself sleeping by herself, ignored by Johannes and dismissed by his brusque sister, Marin, who rules the house and influences the business, too. Distracted by the wedding present, Nella commissions a miniaturist to supply tiny items of furniture; but these exquisite objects and their accompanying messages soon begin to bear a chilly, even prophetic relationship to people and things—suggesting their maker knows more about the family and its business than is possible or safe. In a debut that evokes Old Master interiors and landscapes, British actress Burton depicts a flourishing society built on water and trade, where women struggle to be part of the world. Her empathetic heroine, Nella, endures loneliness and confusion until a sequence of domestic shocks forces her to grow up very quickly. Finally obliged to become that architect of her own fortune, Nella acts to break the miniaturist's spell and save everything she holds dear. With its oblique storytelling, crescendo of female empowerment and wrenching ending, this novel establishes Burton as a fresh and impressive voice; book groups in particular will relish it.
