The Miniaturist's Assistant
An art conservator, a scholar, and a portraitist embrace the mysteries of love and ancestry in Katherine Scott Crawford’s enchanting fantasy novel The Miniaturist’s Assistant.
In 2004, Gamble works in a Charleston museum. Fascinated by the collection’s miniatures, she’s certain that one of her restoration projects depicts a girl she saw in an alley. She consults her friend Tol, a professor. In 1804, Daniel, the artist responsible for the miniatures, meets Gamble, a time traveler who was summoned into his world. Though both Tol and Daniel love Gamble, neither knows whether they’ll be able to hold onto her.
Gamble is a single-minded, meticulous heroine who’s driven by work in the wake of her divorce and buried grief. Her intellectual curiosity about Charleston’s cobblestone streets and prominent families inspires rhapsodic reflections. She believes that past and present are closer than they seem. Indeed, time proves malleable in the novel, whose nonlinearity is a source of hope. But when it comes to love, Gamble is less sure of herself. Her feelings for Tol leave her fearful, and she’s unsettled to learn that she knew Daniel before.
The story is propelled by Gamble’s prescience and by its plentiful romantic frisson. Its relationships develop based on shared interests in stories and art. Both Tol and Daniel are accomplished, and both are charmed and frustrated by Gamble’s enthusiastic, headstrong ways. The reasons for her travels through time are gradually revealed, and the revelations about the cast’s interconnectedness are surprising.
Crescendoing toward a sense of love and fate, The Miniaturist’s Assistant is a delicate fantasy novel in which a woman’s passion for art and regional history help her to heal.
Reviewed by
Karen Rigby
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