Ugh! I can’t believe reading this book feels like a chore to me. Growing older does not seem to make you more certain, it simply presents you with more reasons for doubt. or the architect of their destruction? Goodreads. Is the miniaturist the key to their salvation. Only one person seems to see the fate that awaits them. In this repressively pious society where gold is worshipped second only to God, to be different is a threat to the moral fabric of society, and not even a man as rich as Johannes is safe. But as she uncovers its unusual secrets, she begins to understand–and fear–the escalating dangers that await them all.

Johannes’ gift helps Nella to pierce the closed world of the Brandt household. To furnish her gift, Nella engages the services of a miniaturist–an elusive and enigmatic artist whose tiny creations mirror their real-life counterparts in eerie and unexpected ways. Johannes is kind yet distant, always locked in his study or at his warehouse office–leaving Nella alone with his sister, the sharp-tongued and forbidding Marin.īut Nella’s world changes when Johannes presents her with an extraordinary wedding gift: a cabinet-sized replica of their home. But her new home, while splendorous, is not welcoming.

On a brisk autumn day in 1686, eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman arrives in Amsterdam to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious merchant trader Johannes Brandt.

The miniaturist goodreads