The Dollmaker: A Novel

Nina Allan

Oct 2019 · Highbridge Audio · Narrated by Alex Wyndham

About this audiobook

A love story of two very real, unusual people, and a novel rich with wonders that shines a radically different light on society's marginal figures.



Stitch by perfect stitch, Andrew Garvie makes exquisite dolls in the finest antique style. Like him, they are diminutive, but graceful, unique, and with surprising depths. Perhaps that's why he answers the enigmatic personal ad in his collector's magazine.



Letter by letter, Bramber Winters reveals more of her strange, sheltered life in an institution on Bodmin Moor, and the terrible events that put her there as a child. Andrew knows what it is to be trapped; and as they knit closer together, he weaves a curious plan to rescue her.



On his journey through the old towns of England he reads the fairy tales of Ewa Chaplin—potent, eldritch stories which, like her lifelike dolls, pluck at the edges of reality and thread their way into his mind. When Andrew and Bramber meet at last, they will have a choice—to remain alone with their painful pasts or break free and, unlike their dolls, come to life.

About the author

Nina Allan is a novelist and short story writer. Her fiction has won several prizes, including the British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel, the Novella Award, and the Grand Prix de L'Imaginaire for Best Translated Work. She lives and works in Rothesay, on the Isle of Bute. The Dollmaker is her third novel. An Oxford University and Royal Academy of Dramatic Art graduate, Alex Wyndham has voiced everything from Apple iPad campaigns to fertilizer instructions. He's also starred in several BBC and HBO shows, including the Emmy Award-winning Little Dorrit and Rome, and in various films.