The Miniaturist’s Assistant

Gamble Vance works as an art conservationist at the esteemed Galliard Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina, where she specializes in the history and restoration of 17th-19th century miniature portraits. She is thirty-two years old and divorced, although not completely disentangled from her former husband, Harry (he knows where she hides the key to her rented home, a 237-year-old kitchen house, and uses it more often than is appropriate). Her best friend and maybe love interest, if they dare take the leap, is Tolliver Jackson. The year is 2004, and Gamble’s life is very much rooted in this city, within this circle of colleagues and friends and almost-lovers–until the evening when she encounters the ghost of a woman on a dark back street who implores her, “Won’t you come back? He needs you,” before disappearing into the shadows. And so begins The Miniaturist’s Assistant, the delightful and deftly layered new novel from award-winning author, Katherine Scott Crawford.

Shortly after this encounter, while preparing the museum’s collection of miniature portraits for an exhibition, Gamble fixates on one unattributed piece in particular, the portrait of a young woman. The more she examines the portrait looking for clues to the artist, the more familiar the face is to her. It is, she realizes, the face of the ghostly figure in Stoll’s Alley. Stranger still, Gamble believes she knows the woman; but with a gap of two centuries between them, how could that be possible? Who is she? And who painted her? When the answer to that last question comes to her finally during the exhibition’s opening reception, it serves to unlock much more of Gamble’s memory.

The artist is Daniel Petigru, someone whose work she knows well; the painting’s subject–the elusive woman in the alley–his sister, Honor. When Gamble reveals to Tolliver that she has followed the woman once before through the time portal found in Stoll’s Alley, that she had resided for a time with the family and both assisted and had a love affair with the artist, the revelation sets them on a mission to find out why Honor is beseeching her to return. Gamble’s final journey back to Daniel and Honor uncovers the ties between everyone she loves, past and present, and the truth she brings back is both stunning and life changing.

Sometimes we come across novels that are impossible to categorize, and The Miniaturist’s Assistant is such a book. Yes, it is a tale of time travel. It is a glorious amalgam of the art mystery, historical fiction, and love story genres. And it is also the finest of literary fiction, offering complex and well-drawn characters and deep reflections on such themes as the purpose of art, Charleston’s place in United States history, the American South and its relationship with slavery and racism, interracial relationships, and both the historical and continuing challenges to a person’s bodily autonomy. What makes all of this work together in one book is Crawford’s assured writing.

From meticulously researched settings that form the book’s sturdy underpinnings, to the deep understanding of the emotional lives and motivations of all her characters, to the clear voice of Gamble throughout, Crawford has crafted a rich world readers will be immediately drawn into. Although time travel customarily requires a suspension of disbelief, while reading The Miniaturist’s Assistant I found myself instead giving in to the notion that time is fluid and can be traveled in all directions–by our connections to the people who have come before us and the gifts we leave for those who come after.