The Dollmaker, Nina Allan
The Dollmaker, Nina Allan
List: $39.99 | Sale: $28.00
Club: $19.99

The Dollmaker
A Novel

Author: Nina Allan

Narrator: Alex Wyndham

Unabridged: 10 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/15/2019


Synopsis

A love story of two very real, unusual people, and a novel rich with wonders that shines a radically different light on society's marginal figures.

Stitch by perfect stitch, Andrew Garvie makes exquisite dolls in the finest antique style. Like him, they are diminutive, but graceful, unique, and with surprising depths. Perhaps that's why he answers the enigmatic personal ad in his collector's magazine.

Letter by letter, Bramber Winters reveals more of her strange, sheltered life in an institution on Bodmin Moor, and the terrible events that put her there as a child. Andrew knows what it is to be trapped; and as they knit closer together, he weaves a curious plan to rescue her.

On his journey through the old towns of England he reads the fairy tales of Ewa Chaplin—potent, eldritch stories which, like her lifelike dolls, pluck at the edges of reality and thread their way into his mind. When Andrew and Bramber meet at last, they will have a choice—to remain alone with their painful pasts or break free and, unlike their dolls, come to life.

Reviews

Goodreads review by L.S. on January 10, 2020

I was drawn to this book because of its reviews. They promised stories within stories. I got that. There was a very clear central plot thread, and many blatant messages about marginalized individuals. I felt that most of the characters were easy to sympathize with. Overall it was very well done, exc......more

Goodreads review by 8stitches 9lives on April 04, 2019

The Dollmaker is award-winning author Nina Allan's third novel and being the epitome of strange it rather defies classification or categorisation. I have always been drawn to weird or absurdist fiction so this was right up my street. It follows protagonist Andrew who fondly remembers falling in love......more

Goodreads review by Liviu on October 29, 2020

Another novel that took a while to get seriously into, but once I passed the 20 pages or so mark, I just couldn't put it down until the excellent ending; charming, great characters and very interesting as a story too, though with patches of (almost unexpected) darkness that we discover as we go alon......more

Goodreads review by Lucy on December 23, 2018

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. Highly unusual structure, beautifully written - a nice change from the norm! Okay, I'll be straight with you here. At first, I was bewildered with this book. I didn't know at all what to make of it. Then, all of a sudden,......more

Goodreads review by Catherine on October 08, 2023

My first thought while writing this review is, how can it possibly be rated at 3.47? I can only imagine that some readers were misled by the title into believing that the story might somehow be cute, or at worst a bit spooky. The blurb, too, does not warn you of just how bizarre parts of this story......more