Macabre and beautifully written

Every aspect of the book is strange bordering on the macabre. It is about the long-term distance relationship of two doll collectors. Yes, they collect those scary Victorian dolls with the porcelain faces, white lace dresses and real hair.

Andrew Garvie has dwarfism and during his isolated childhood he develops a fondness for collecting dolls which he then develops into doll making as a profession in adulthood.
He meets fellow collector, Bramber Winters through the personal ads pages of a doll collectors magazine (I'm sure both these things probably do exist, I just never want to be a part of this scene).

Bramber lives in a mental hospital for reasons which are unclear but follow the death of her mother many years ago. The two collectors correspond around their shared admiration of a Polish dollmaker and author called Ewa Chapman. They exchange letters frequently with Bramber using their exchanges as part confessional and part insight into life in residential care, whilst Andrew falls in love with her and decides to visit her without permission or warning.

In between all this we are treated to some of the stories written by Ewa Chapman, most of which feature a dwarf and have the flavour of Eastern European fairy tales (think princesses, dwarfs and freak shows).

Finally, Andrew leaves his London home to visit Bramber at the residential home in rural Devon but steals a collectable doll on the way to impress her. The doll speaks to him and tries to lead him astray. I won't spoil the ending accept to report that it is disappointing and leaves matters unresolved.

This is beautifully written, bizarre, haunting and disturbing as well as being very intriguing.
Both narrator's are very good but Beth Eyre is outstanding.

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