Andrew and Bramber start writing to each other because of their shared interest in dolls. As their friendship grows, Andrew decides to visit Bramber at the institution she calls home. Andrew and Bramber’s story is interspersed with tales written by another doll-lover, Ewa Chaplin, which Andrew reads on his journey. A beautiful, strange, multi-layered book you’ll want to keep reading long after the sun has gone down.

I am in charge of our Senior School library and am looking for a diverse array of new books to furnish their shelves with and inspire our young people to read a wider and more diverse range of books as they move through the senior school. It is hard sometimes to find books that will grab the attention of young people as their time is short and we are competing against technology and online entertainments.
This was a thought-provoking and well-written read that will appeal to young readers across the board. It had a really strong voice and a compelling narrative that I think would capture their attention and draw them in. It kept me engrossed and I think that it's so important that the books that we purchase for both our young people and our staff are appealing to as broad a range of readers as possible - as well as providing them with something a little 'different' that they might not have come across in school libraries before.
This was a really enjoyable read and I will definitely be purchasing a copy for school so that our young people can enjoy it for themselves. A satisfying and well-crafted read that I keep thinking about long after closing its final page - and that definitely makes it a must-buy for me!

[To be published June 2nd]

Andrew Garvie has loved collecting antique dolls since he was a child, so much so that he now makes his own. Dolls that are very much like him, miniature (Andrew has proportionate dwarfism) but graceful, with plenty of hidden depths. One day, he answers an enigmatic personal ad in his collector’s magazine: “INFORMATION (biographical/bibliographical/photographic) on the life and work of EWA CHAPLIN AND/OR friendship, correspondence… Please reply to: Bramber Winters.”

With each letter, Bramber reveals more of her strange life in an institution on Bodmin Moor and Andrew falls more and more in love, to the point where he decides to play Sir Galahad and rescue her. He takes with him on this journey a copy of Ewa Chaplin’s fairy tales: strange, potent things, like her dolls, that eerily start to mirror reality. What will happen when Andrew and Bramber finally meet? Will they remain empty vessels, like their dolls, or will they finally come to life?

Nina Allan is known primarily for her speculative fiction – her debut, The Race, won the Grand Prix de L'imaginaire and her second novel, The Rift, won the British Science Fiction Award and the Kitschies Red Tentacle, as well as short fiction that has been shortlisted for the Hugo Award, the Shirley Jackson Award. and the British Fantasy Award. However, The Dollmaker isn’t as much of a departure as it may first appear. Both previous titles are characterised by narratives that span time and space and themes that question the nature of reality. The Dollmaker is described as “a love story about becoming real” and, though it appears to be literary, the short stories apparently having little to do with the main narrative. It uses the stories, and the motif of dolls themselves, to explore the idea of how reality is created (or, as it is put in the book, the “metaphysics of physics”).

The question of parallel realities and universes is posed. Both Andrew and Bramber are familiar with the feeling of belonging to a different world – Andrew because of his stature and Bramber because of her social awkwardness and, later, because of her surroundings in the mental institution. One character – Edwin, Bramber’s first love – even mentions a link between ghosts and parallel universes – that what we see as ghosts could just be echoes of other realities. So how are they created? Through objects? There is mention of the link between dolls and the human form and the beliefs surrounding this – the uncanny influence they seem to exert, tales of possessed dolls and the idea that by harming a doll made in someone’s image, you do harm to the person, echoed when Bramber destroys her doll that looks like her friend Helen for example, or when Andrew comes across a Ewa Chaplin doll, known as “Artist”, whose spell he seems to fall under.

Are they created through storytelling? Chaplin’s fairy tales are sandwiched between Andrew’s journey and Bramber’s letters, perfect self-contained set-pieces that encompass everything from the contemporary to the fantastical. There are a number of recurring motifs: firstly, dwarfs – court dwarfs especially, who were used by the monarchs of Europe to visually enhance their powerful positions and cater to the aristocracy’s fascination for anything “grotesque” and/or extraordinary – and their allusions to mythology and magic, particularly in the form of a poem about a dwarf who fell in love with and ended up murdering his queen (possible hints/foreshadows of a possible outcome for the relationship between Andrew and Bramber) and so there is a dwarf or dwarf-like character (a soldier who has lost both his legs, for example) in every story, who always act as agents of change.

Another recurring motif is transformative acts of creation: storytelling, alchemy, make up artistry, science, philosophy, journalism, painting and, of course, doll making. As he reads, Andrew begins to notice more and more characters and details that mirror his own life, the woman he fell in love with who went on to disappear without a trace, for instance, or the daughter of his best friend who’s a musical prodigy but seems to have trouble behaving or communicating in a manner considered normal. Even a particular story itself, ‘Amber Furness’ – another story about unrequited love between a woman and a dwarf, seems to take on a life of its own, mentioned in the main narrative as well as in other stories in the form of a play.

Or do we simply make reality by existing through it? As Edwin also reminds us, “time is a human construct” – things, people, memories can become more or less real. Because Andrew is just passing through the places he stays in they have a sense of unreality about them. He has never met Bramber in person before but has already managed to construct a “real” person from her letters.

The pace is thoughtful and measured, moving much more smoothly once you become used to the different narratives, building to an ending that is atmospheric but doesn’t seem to provide definitive answers for the questions posed. But whilst some may struggle with its slow start or its ambiguity of its ending, for those who can get past this they’ll find The Dollmaker is a book that lingers on in the mind long after finishing it, much like the tales of Chaplin herself.

What a fabulous cover, also the blurb on the back of the book made me instantly want to read more. It is a very strange and unusual novel and the structure is most peculiar. The story explores the letters between Andrew Garvie and Bramber Winters, who come to know each other through their mutual interest in dolls. As I said a strange and interesting concept. I don't want to give too much away. Recommended.

A fascinating and very different book. Not at all what I was expecting from the cover, but I really enjoyed it.

I had no idea what to expect from this book. I loved the descriptions and the characters, both were so quirky and so misunderstood. I really enjoyed it but I did keep having a moment where I flashed back to a scene in Brooklyn 99 where Jake and his girlfriend go away from a romantic weekend and the B&B is filled with dolls - everywhere! However, very enjoyable book. Thanks.

The Dollmaker by Nina Allan is an original novel that I enjoyed from start to finish. i had never read a book by this author before but I was pleasantly surprised. Allan has a lovely way with words and has created strong and memorable characters. The plot line moves at a good pace and maintains the readers attention. I look forward to reading more from the author in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

The Dollmaker is an unusual book and for quite a while, I was sure whether I liked it or not. The main narrative is between Andrew, a man who has had a fascination with antique dolls since childhood, and Bramber, a woman living in an institution. Interwoven between their letters are dark, fairy tales written by Ewa Chaplin who is a dollmaker that Bramber wants to learn more of. I actually found these fairy tales more interesting than the story of Andrew and Bramber which seemed a bit dull in comparison. Overall, I did enjoy the book and I look forward to reading other works by Nina Allan.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Andrew Garvie lives a quiet life making delicate and intricate dolls, Bramber Winters lives in isolation in an institution. Their paths connect after Andrew answers Bramber’s personal ad in a Collector’s magazine. They grow in closeness with every passing letter and Andrew hatches a plan to journey through England to rescue her.

As Andrew travels he reads Ewa Chaplins’ fairy tales, thus introducing stories within the story.

As this novel contains mini tales throughout, the overarching structure was difficult to follow. I’m sad to say it fell short. I found myself disappointed when the fairy tales ended and ‘real life’ resumed. I was absolutely in love with the story of Nelly Toye and would have loved a fully fleshed novel of that tale.

Nothing about this book is bad but I just found myself wishing for more.

3/5 Stars

Thank you to Quercus Books for providing an e-ARC copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Fascinating characters, and stories which kept you reading to find out more. Lovely lyrical descriptions and wonderful use of language to set the scene.

I have to confess that china dolls, like clowns give me the creeps so I don't know why this book called out to me to be read! I'm glad it did because it has joined the list of 'most memorable reads' this year.

Andrew has always liked dolls. Maybe his small stature drew him to the miniature people. Whatever it was, his interest in them eventually led to him making exquisite handmade creations. In an attempt to reach out to a fellow enthusiast he answered a pen-pal ad in a specialist doll magazine and so grew the snail mail relationship between Andrew & Bramber, a woman living in a large house in Bodmin-an institution she has been in since girlhood. As their relationship develops Andrew decides to travel to Bodmin to meet her.

This book is written in a fairly unusual way following Andrew's life, the letters between him & Bramber & the stories written by Polish dollmaker Ewa Chaplin. It takes a while to get used to this but the whole book is beautifully written & kept me totally enthralled Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book- I loved it!

Andrew, an avid lover of dolls, takes a trip across SW England in order to rescue Bramber, his pen pal. He’s convinced he loves her and is need of his help. Interspersed with the letters and Andrew’s experiences are fairy tales featuring dwarfs. I thought I’d really enjoy this book after reading its description but I didn’t and instead found myself skimming more and more (the fairy tales and most of Bramber’s letters). The cover was intriguing and the book was well written, but just not to my taste.

Such a beautifully written book with wonderful turns of phrase throughout. The Dollmaker is filled with stories within stories as well as having tangents thrown in for good measure. The characters are also memorable as well as compelling which is a requirement for a novel with this kind of ambition.

While I'm not sure I can recommend the book for an impatient reader, I suspect The Dollmaker will get nominated for numerous book awards upon its publication.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This is a beautifully written, sinister gothic tale, reminiscent of fairytales. The story format is almost like a collection of short stories and can take some getting used to, but all in a good read.

Andrew a doll maker is off on a journey to find a young woman he has been writing to for some time. Along the way he learns about himself and her. Will he find her and will she want to know him?

I had high hopes for this but it didn't quite live up to it. It was an interesting story but just didn't draw me in that much. I enjoyed the letters Bramber sent him. It helped develop her character and I really enjoyed the translated fairy tales. The ending was good and finished the story nicely. An interesting read but not enough for me. I'm sure others will love it though.

I was sent a copy of The Dollmaker by Nina Allan to read and review by NetGalley.
I have very mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed the main story of the relationship between the dollmaker of the title, Andrew, and his correspondent Bramber and the way their relationship unfolded. I was not so taken however, with the chapters of the character Ewa Chaplin’s modern day fairytales. I found these to be overly long and, for me personally, rather irrelevant and quite possibly unnecessary! I found the novel to be quite unsure of its era , though this may well have been a foil by the author by making the setting seem old fashioned even though it is set in the present day. Living as I do in Cornwall I must say I was absolutely appalled by some of the blatant inaccuracies regarding the county; even if a place is used within the context of a novel surely it must actually be founded on the reality?! I was really looking forward to reading The Dollmaker and I think it had real potential but I’m afraid it fell far short of my expectations, hence the three stars.

I was initially attracted to The Dollmaker by the cover and the book description but it turned out to be quite different from what I expected. The book has an unusual structure: an episodic first person account by Andrew, a collector and maker of dolls, of his journey to the West Country to meet Bramber; letters from Bramber to Andrew from the institution where she resides; and short stories with a dark, fairy tale quality purporting to have been written by dollmaker, Ewa Chaplin.

I found Andrew's narrative with its rather downbeat impression of South-West England a little boring and Bramber's letters unrealistic in their level of detail. The short stories I found slightly creepy and I really didn't get the seeming fixation with dwarves. It was all a bit too strange for me and more than once I considered not finishing it. It was only curiosity that made me persevere to the end and I'm still not certain that effort was worth it. I know others have loved it however its unusual combination of travelogue, short story collection and epistolary confessional just didn't work for me.

I received an e-copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley for review purposes. Thank you!

Nina Allen’s <i>The Dollmaker</i> is a strange novel. It contains a jumble of elements: a boy, then a man, interested in making dolls, his long-distance friendship with a mysterious woman, conducted by the means of letters, short stories written by a (purportedly) Polish refugee, concerned with strange events, dolls and dwarfs, and the way fiction and “real life” permeate each other.

There are many pieces to this puzzle, and many of them are interesting and engaging on their own, but on the whole, it doesn’t all quite come together. Sometimes it feels a little like an A.S.Byatt novel (and I love A.S. Byatt). Sometimes it feels like Jostein Gaarder. It can be captivating and fascinating, but it doesn’t quite work.

I am especially perplexed by the supposed Polish writer and her short stories. Why make her Polish (Polish Jewish) if the stories don’t really have much to do with Poland? The names used in the stories especially are such a weird mix of kinda-Polish, kinda-maybe-Jewish, kinda-maybe-German, and then just plain made up. And okay, a lot of them have a fairytale-like quality, maybe the names aren’t supposed to be genuine: but on the other hand, there is an introduction to the stories written by a contemporary Polish scholar called “Krystina Lodz” and… nope. First, “Krystyna”. Second - “Lodz”, seriously? There are thousands of last names in Polish that don’t contain any diacritics and would sound much less fake. Would it really be that difficult to find a Polish-speaking person to look through these parts of the book?

On the whole, it was an interesting reading experience, but (as you can see above) fairly frustrating.And even though I cannot wholly recommend this book, I’m very interested in what Allen writes next.

It's hard to pinpoint the genre of this book, but I think that's part of the appeal. Several different stories happening at the same time. The characters were well developed

In retrospect, everything else in The Dollmaker was overshadowed for me by the hauntingly brilliant long quotation that prefaces the novel, taken from an 1897 article called 'A Study of Dolls', co-authored by the famous American psychologist of adolescence, G. Stanley Hall. Here's a little bit of it:

'90 children mentioned burial, their average age being nine; 80 mentioned funerals, 73 imagined their dolls dead, 30 dug up dolls after burial to see if they had gone to heaven, or simply to get them back. Of these 11 dug them up the same day... 12 dolls came to death by accidental bumps and fractures, 1 burst, 1 died of a melted face, 2 were drowned (1 a paper doll)... 30 children had never imagined dolls dead. This parents often forbid... In 21 cases there was death but no burial; in 10, funerals but no burials; in 8, funerals but no death.'

This is so ridiculous and beautiful, the kind of inadvertent poetry that you sometimes find in Victorian social studies, that The Dollmaker was never going to live up to it. Ultimately, I admired the craft and intelligence with which this novel was written, but it wasn't really my thing.

Andrew Garvie, who has dwarfism, has spent his life collecting and making dolls. When he receives a letter from Bramber Winters, a woman living in an institution on Bodmin Moor, about his collection, this begins an enthusiastic correspondence between them. Andrew sets off on a journey across England to finally meet Bramber, and on the way, reads a book of Polish stories that she's recommended to him by the fictional Ewa Chaplin. Chaplin's stories are littered with characters that might be considered 'freaks' in nineteenth-century parlance, from a range of people who also have dwarfism to a woman whose fingers have been frozen by rheumatoid arthritis and a woman born without one of her eyes. This engages Andrew's sympathies; recently, he has been restoring 'monsters', damaged dolls who don't have perfect faces and bodies, because he sees no reason why dolls shouldn't reflect reality.

A number of Chaplin's stories are scattered throughout the novel, and most are riveting; subtly disturbing, they all suggest worlds that aren't quite our own. In contrast, Andrew and Bramber's plot-line is rooted more firmly in reality than I'd expected, and I longed for more than a hint of the speculative. The dolls themselves are more symbolically significant throughout the novel than anything else, and I wished there had been a lot more about Andrew's work as a dollmaker, picking up on the hint of creepiness in the Stanley Hall quote. And while the Chaplin stories worked for me, they made the pace of the novel very erratic, as it took me a little while to get into each one, meaning I'd often put the novel aside for some time when a new story appeared. Without the stories, on the other hand, this is a familiar tale of two misfits finding love through letter, and Bramber never really came alive for me; I'd have preferred the whole thing to be about Andrew, his dolls, and Ewa Chaplin's stories.

Writers often complain that reviewers review the book they wanted to read rather than the book the writer wanted to write, and that's definitely at play for me here; I SO wanted this to be a more alternative-reality sort of novel that I kept on making up elaborate twists that didn't come to pass (Andrew and Bramber are actually dolls in a complicated child's game!). However, this is a very well-written novel that I'd recommend to those to whom the synopsis appeals, and as I hear Allan's earlier novels lean more towards the SF, I'll definitely be checking those out.

Review cross-posted to Amazon, Goodreads and my blog.