The House of Fortune

Alive with the magic of eighteenth-century Amsterdam, a bestselling, bewitching historical novel about one young woman learning to set her own life's course despite family and cultural pressure, from New York Times bestselling author Jessie Burton.
In Amsterdam in 1705, Thea Brandt is coming of age, trying to grapple with her family's secrets and her own identity as a young Dutch African woman. She's drawn to the theater and an artistic life, but with her family in serious financial decline, pressure is on Thea to marry up in society.
As her father and Aunt Nella work desperately to save the family home and catastrophe threatens to engulf them, Thea seeks refuge in the arms of her secret lover, Walter, the chief set painter at her favorite theater. But the thrill of their romance is shadowed by another secret she keeps close: Her birthday marks the day her mother, Marin, died in labor. Thea's family refuses to share the details of the story, just as they seem terrified to speak of the shadowy artist from their past whose tiny figurines seem to capture the things most carefully hidden away. Aunt Nella believes the solution to Thea's problems is to find her a husband, and an unexpected invitation to Amsterdam's most exclusive ball seems like a golden opportunity. But when a miniature figure of Walter turns up on Thea's doorstep, it becomes clear that someone out there has another fate in mind for the family- and that perhaps the new beginning Thea seeks won't depend on a man.
A feat of sweeping, magical storytelling, The House of Fortune is an unputdownable novel about love and obsession, family and loyalty, and the fantastic power of secrets.

Jessie Burton is the author of the Sunday Times no.1 bestselling novels, The Miniaturist, The Muse and The House of Fortune. Her third novel, The Confession, was an instant Sunday Times bestseller. The Miniaturist was also a New York Times bestseller, selling a million copies in its first year, and was adapted for television for BBC One. She has written two children's books, The Restless Girls - a reimagining of The Twelve Dancing Princesses fairytale - and Medusa, the latter being shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. Jessie is now published in forty languages.