The House of Fortune

By: Jessie Burton

Narrated by: Carla Harrison Hodge

Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Bloomsbury presents The House of Fortune by Jessie Burton, read by Carla Harrison Hodge.

Alive with the magic of 18th-century Amsterdam, an enchanting, fantastical stand-alone companion novel to the sensational New York Times bestseller The Miniaturist, which has sold over two million copies worldwide.

Amsterdam in the year 1705. It is Thea Brandt’s eighteenth birthday. She is ready to welcome adulthood with open arms, but life at home is increasingly difficult. Her father Otto and her Aunt Nella argue endlessly over their financial fate, selling off furniture in a desperate attempt to hold on to the family home.

As catastrophe threatens to engulf the household, Thea seeks refuge in Amsterdam’s playhouses. She loves the performances, and the stolen moments afterwards are even better. In the backrooms of her favorite theater, Thea can spend a few precious minutes with her secret lover, Walter, the chief set-painter, a man adept at creating the perfect environments for comedies and tragedies to flourish. The thrill of their hidden romance offers Thea an exciting distraction from home. But it also puts her in mind of another secret that threatens to overwhelm the present: Thea knows her birthday marks the day her mother, Marin, died in labor. Thea’s family refuses to share the details of this story, just as they seem terrified to speak of “the miniaturist”—a shadowy figure from their past who is possessed of uncanny abilities to capture that which is hidden.

Aunt Nella believes the solution to all Thea’s problems is to find her a husband who will guarantee her future. An unexpected invitation to Amsterdam’s most exclusive ball seems like a golden opportunity. But when Thea finds, on her doorstep, a parcel containing a miniature figure of Walter, it becomes clear that someone out there has another fate in mind for the family....

A feat of sweeping, magical storytelling, The House of Fortune is an audiobook about love and obsession, family and loyalty, and the fantastic power of secrets.

©2022 Jessie Burton (P)2022 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Critic reviews

"A beautifully written and wholly engrossing tale. New readers will be delighted that they can enjoy this book without having read the first one, but they’ll probably seek it out to spend a bit more time in Burton’s magical Amsterdam." (Library Journal)

"A more than worthy sequel to The Miniaturist. Elegant, atmospheric, compelling. I absolutely loved it." (Marian Keyes, New York Times bestselling author of The Brightest Star in the Sky and Again, Rachel)

An excellent sequel

I didn’t absolutely love The Miniaturist, but I liked it enough to want to see what the author did next. At first I thought I was going to be disappointed; the beginning didn’t grab me, in part because so much time is spent in long, thinky passages about the interior lives of the characters at the expense of action. But then it hit its stride and hooked me, and I stayed hooked even through a very extended ending. It seems clear that there will be a third installment in the story and I look forward to reading it.

Hoping there is more…

Enjoyed this sequel to “The Miniaturist.”
Sorry when it ended, just when things were looking up! I’d like to know what happens next.

Great continuation of The Miniaturist

Another wonderful immersion in the lives of the Brandt family. Hopefully there is another story after this one, too.

A Nice Sequel

Picking up 18 years after The Miniaturist, this book tells the story of Thea, Marin and Otto’s daughter. Secrets. Romance. Shame. A new beginning for the Brandt family.

As good as the first

If you liked the first, I’d recommend this one too. Had a hard time putting it down.

Excellent Sequel

This is a fantastic follow up to the first. It centers on the choice we always have to make between falling into despair and fear after our traumatic experiences or working our way back to our whole selves by overcoming the fear and despair.

Entertaining sequel

Nice follow up for The Miniaturist, as the family continues it’s its struggle to fit in and survive. I did enjoy the first story more, but never lost interest in this one.

Good story but…

This was a very good story and I enjoyed it right up until the very end. There were so many plot twists and none of them were wrapped up!