The release date for the English version of 'The Miniaturist' by
Jessie Burton is Aug 2014. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
In the vein of Emma Donoghue, Sarah Waters, and Sarah Dunant, this brilliant debut is drenched in atmosphere and sparkling with mystery. It is set in seventeenth-century Amsterdam, a city dominated by dazzling riches and stifling religion.
"There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed . . ."
Nella Oortman, at eighteen, travels to Amsterdam on a crisp autumn day in 1686 to start a new life as the spouse of renowned commercial trader Johannes Brandt. Despite being magnificent, her new house is unwelcoming. Kind yet aloof, Johannes is always shut in his study or warehouse office, leaving Nella alone herself with his acerbic and intimidating sister, Marin.
However, Nella's whole perspective is altered when Johannes gives her an amazing relic of their house in the form of a cabinet. Nella hires a miniaturist—a mysterious and elusive artist whose small sculptures reflect their real-life counterparts in unsettling and surprising ways—to provide her present.
Nella is able to see into the Brandt household's restricted world thanks to Johannes' gift. However, as she learns about its strange mysteries, she starts to realize—and be afraid of—the growing risks that lie ahead for them all. Even a guy as wealthy as Johannes is not secure in this tightly religious culture where money is revered more than God. Being different poses a danger to the moral fabric of society. It appears that only one person knows what destiny has in store for them. Is the miniatureist the means to their deliverance or the mastermind behind their downfall?
The Miniaturist is a great tale of love and obsession, betrayal and retaliation, appearance and truth. It is charming, lovely, and really intriguing.