Elise Hooper's spellbinding fifth novel, The Library of Lost Dollhouses, takes readers deep into the world of intricately crafted miniatures and the secrets they contain. Through the connected stories of Belva Curtis LeFarge, an art collector and philanthropist, and Tildy Barrows, a librarian and curator who runs the San Francisco museum founded by Belva, Hooper examines the layers that often lie behind polished, public narratives--especially for women.
Tildy has devoted her life and career to Belva's library and museum, known locally as "the Bel." As she learns that the Bel is facing deep financial trouble, Tildy stumbles on a secret room in the museum containing two large, ornate dollhouses. Both pieces bear the maker's mark "CH"--and, astonishingly, one holds a miniature portrait of Tildy's mother. Stunned and intrigued, Tildy embarks on a quest to uncover the dollhouse maker's identity and save the Bel's finances by mounting an exhibit showcasing the miniatures.
Hooper (Angels of the Pacific; Fast Girls) shifts between Tildy's present-day search for Cora Hale and Cora's own experiences, a century before. Sent to Paris in 1910 after a scandal in New York, Cora crosses paths with Belva, who quickly becomes both benefactor and friend. Commissioned to create a dollhouse for Belva, Cora throws herself into the project as World War I creeps ever closer to Paris. As she hones her artistic skills, Cora hides a few secrets in the elaborate rooms of Belva's dollhouse--a practice she will carry into her future projects. Meanwhile, in 2024, Tildy's research takes her to rural New Hampshire, where she meets a handsome man connected to Cora--and stumbles on a manuscript that could change everything.
Hooper demonstrates how dollhouses, though often dismissed as frivolous playthings, can, in fact, be works of art, requiring skills such as woodworking, upholstery, painting and plastering, metalwork, and sculpture. Hooper meticulously describes Cora's growing love for her chosen art form as well as the women who approach her about dollhouses of their own. The miniatures offer Cora's clients the chance to reshape their houses and their lives according to their wishes--and to hide a few potentially explosive secrets in plain sight. When Tildy uncovers a few of these secrets during her research into Cora's life, she must decide whether to tell the truth, even if it means losing support for the Bel.
Constructing a narrative as finely detailed as these dollhouses, Hooper builds a world of brave women, complex artistry, and long-buried family secrets. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams
Shelf Talker: A museum curator discovers a pair of elaborately crafted dollhouses containing family secrets in Elise Hooper's finely detailed fifth novel.