It is 1686 in Amsterdam. It is cold, damp and an alien environment to
eighteen-year-old Nella who has journeyed there from the countryside to join
her husband at his home. He is nice
enough, welcoming and bestowing gifts and praise upon her at their second
meeting. Yet there is something odd
going on in the house. Her sister-in-law
is forbidding, the servants are nice but closemouthed and she hasn’t seen her
husband for more than a few hours at a time, leaving their union
unconsummated.
To make up for his absence Nella’s
new husband has a miniature house delivered and hopes she will be entertained
with furnishing it. She contacts a
miniaturist she finds in the city directory and commissions a few small pieces. The pieces she asked for arrive and so do some
more; items that seem to predict events in the household before they happen.
I am still left with questions after
finishing this book which is something that I like and I know others really
don’t appreciate. The book is a slow
starter, I almost gave up on it, but it is a good suspense story if you can
mull through the first seventy-five pages or so. You learn a lot about the life of a high
level merchant in the Dutch East India Company and his family and the lack of power
that females had in this time of commerce, as well as religious oppression and the
constant public scrutiny wealthy families experienced.
Sound like something you would want
to read? Place your holds now! The book comes out on the 26th of August.
