The Dollmaker

Her literary sensibility fuses the fantastic and the mundane to great effect - Guardian

In clean, beautiful, agile prose, Nina Allan is able to conjure a recognisable England and a place of deep enchantment. The world of The Dollmaker is not only one we know, it seems to know us, and readers will lose and find themselves inside Allan’s wonderful creation. A fantastic book, revealing a zone of wonder and a world of truth. - Andrew O’Hagan, author of The Illuminations

Amazing experiments are still possible with the form of the novel! I was deeply impressed by the complexity of this elegant, beautiful and subtly scary book. - Daniel Kehlmann, author of Measuring the World

As uncanny and disquieting as a Hans Bellmer photograph, yet rooted - like all of Nina Allan’s superb novels - in a minutely observed everyday reality that feels almost too familiar. This is a masterful and multi-layered haunted toyshop of a novel, but who exactly is playing with who? - Tony White, author of The Fountain in the Forest

Mesmerising, richly layered and wholly original - worthy of a modern Grimm - Andrew Caldecott, author of Rotherweird

Beautifully written and deeply strange … Allan writes about neglect and transgression very well … Wonderfully taut - Sunday Times

This is a very singular book indeed, one punctuated by dark, strikingly densely imagined fairytales, which share disturbing parallels with Andrew’s own life. Blurred boundaries are, in part, what this unsettling, intricately constructed and teasingly elliptical tale of misfits, outcasts and outsiders is about … The award-winning sci-fi writer’s talents are evident - Daily Mail

Sometimes, all you can really do is applaud … So achingly clever and well constructed it’s a bit like a magic trick. A dazzling little puzzle box of a novel, one that interleaves multiple voices, moods and genres. Intricate, measured and subtly creepy, this is the sort of book that invites you to find your own path, and decide for yourself just what the story is. - SFX