by Sonali Dutta.
Non-spoiler review.
Jessie Burton’s debut novel has been a spectacular success, becoming the book to read and being awarded Waterstones’ book of the year. It is a historical thriller set in seventeenth century Amsterdam. Burton was inspired to write her novel after seeing a real doll’s house at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Nella arrives in Amsterdam from her childhood home following her wedding to Johannes Brandt. Having grown up in the country, teenage Nella finds marriage and Amsterdam an adjustment. As well as her thirty-nine year old husband, Nella will be living with his cold sister Marin, their maid Cornelia and Johannes’s African manservant Otto. But already the reader gathers that Nella will not live happily ever after with her husband.
© Picador
Teaspoon of Sunshine 