Book Review The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton, published in paperback by Picador at £7.99.

Review by Anna Simpson TRANSPORT yourself back to the canals of 17th century Amsterdam with Jessie Burton's magical descriptions of the city's material complexities and its inhabitants' emotional dramas. The story follows the explorations of Nella Oortman, an eighteen-year-old recently married through arrangement to wealthy and well-travelled Dutch merchant Johannes Brandt, as she finds her place within his household and Amsterdam's upper-class social circles.

Johannes gifts her an exquisite miniature dolls-house to occupy his wife in her new suburban life. While Nella is craving the romantic attention promised to her in marriage, she initially finds her husband's treatment of her embarrassing and belittling. However Nella cannot help but become absorbed in the secrets of her miniature world, learning to furnish the house with tiny decorations commissioned by a mysterious local artist. We see the cabinet's embellishments grow in parallel with Nella's developing imagination, intrigue and understanding of the world around her.

The story really progresses as Nella uncovers, sometimes painstakingly, more about the past lives of the characters living in and out of the house: her new sister-in-law Marin, Otto the black slave, Cornelia the orphaned servant and Johannes' various trading friends. As these relationships develop, Burton writes in many dramatic moments making the book a real page turner, evoked from animosity, jealousy, greed and love.

Many social problems are also addressed throughout, injecting the novel with a sense of modern-day morality. Nella's fascination with Otto's skin and hair, for example, sits uncomfortably at the start – attributed to a combination of casual racism and childish naivety. Yet whilst historically questionable, Nella's increasing bursts of feminist indignation regarding her limited situation, and her complaints of Otto's racial injustices, are both compelling and enjoyable.

A satisfying historical awareness underpins details of drama and romance through references to Johannes’ career in the navy, Amsterdam’s bustling sugar trade and the nuances of Dutch Calvinism. Burton's thorough historical research is obvious, but doesn't detract from the attention she pays to describing elegantly her characters, their world and their relationships.

The Miniaturist is filled with description, sometimes colourful and at other times haunting, but Burton's eye for extra detail makes it an engaging and thought-provoking read. Nella for example has a bird called Peebo, its bright feathers symbolically caged away behind cold metal. The parallel between the restricted life of its owner and a bird named ‘Pee-po’ is obvious: one of many references to the lack of freedom afforded to those who find themselves owned by others in 17th century Dutch society.

The main message we can therefore take away from the book is that our protagonist gains great powers of freedom by utilizing her creativity and passion for discovery, given the gendered and social expectations limiting Nella in her day-to-day life. It may not be a total figment of Nella's imagination, but we must overlook the material dimension of the miniature house, instead viewing it as Nella does: a magical world in which she enjoys control and freedom. No reader could fail to feel totally immersed.