Which novels evoke a sense of the city in which
they are set? Ian Rankin brings
Edinburgh to life and a recent visit makes me want to re-discover them now that I
have an improved idea of the topography.
Oxford is 'Morse' and Philip Pullman’s 'Northern Lights' and Cornwall, for me, is the
'Gull on the Roof', memoirs of Derek Tangye’s Penwith escape. Arguably Birmingham is yet to find its voice but we sort
of have Shakespeare.
This debut novel is exquisitely
crafted, constructed as intricately as
the miniatures which slowly fill the doll’s house in the Amsterdam townhouse of
Johannes Brandt. The dollhouse is a gift for his 18 year old bride Nella
Oortman. As the secrets reveal an atmosphere as foggy as the canal streets the novel builds to create a sense of 16th Century Amsterdam and the bustle of
the city with its traders and merchants. Perhaps it is because it is a debut
that such effort is made to piece the novel together so that the house becomes
a metaphor for the novel itself, exquisitely crafted with each character
revealing themselves as we become more familiar with their role in the cabinet
of curiosities. On the bestseller list for months and justifiably so, a novel which
makes one wonder at the skill of the author. The best books are the ones which
leave one thinking I could never do that. So
I suppose that word I am looking for is 'awesome.'
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