It has taken Jessie Burton eight years to return to the Amsterdam of her first book, the bestseller The House of Miniatures, a city that is experiencing its golden age after the defeat of the Spanish in Flanders, the artistic and commercial boom, and the opening of new trade routes that have made it the main port in Europe after Lisbon. In La casa de la fortuna (Salamandra), its sequel to it, several decades have passed, and the lives of the protagonists have taken many upheavals.
“Although the historical setting is what it is, Amsterdam at the beginning of the 18th century, half a century after the definitive march of the Spaniards, it is not a history lesson, and I did not need to go much to the city to look for scenarios and contexts (the pandemic would have made it almost impossible) –explains Burton, who will be 42 years old in August–. In the archives and on the net I have found all the material I needed”.
In The House of Miniatures, everything revolves around Nella, an innocent girl who, at the age of 18, moves from the countryside to a mansion on the Herengracht, one of the canals of the Dutch city, to live with her husband Johannes, a man older than her. In La casa de la fortuna the years have passed, she has become a widow and acts as a foster mother to Thea, her niece, the daughter of a black servant and the sister of her husband, who died in childbirth.
Money is scarce anymore, they have had to sell even their crockery, and the only solution is to marry Thea to a rich man, but she is an idealistic young woman and is in love with a theater set painter whom she dreams of marrying one day. Classic dilemma. “Nella has gotten older (38 years old), less romantic, burned out by life,” says Burton. Her only concern is to survive, whatever the cost. She had to pay for it, and she hopes her niece does the same, for everyone’s sake.”
Writing is not easy for Burton, a perfectionist who threw away several drafts and 300,000 words before coming up with the final version of her latest novel. “I wouldn’t necessarily define it as a pleasant experience, despite the romance that surrounds the profession, some days I find it easier and others more difficult. Developing a character is like meeting someone for the first time, and you don’t fully control their growth and evolution, in that sense they are like children. The reader is needed to close the circle”.
When he gave birth to The House of Miniatures, there was not the same sensitivity as now for issues such as racism, cultural appropriation and colonialism, “very present in the Amsterdam of the 17th and 18th centuries, and an element that has been put under scrutiny.” new focus the story of my new novel”. But the epicenter is the relationship between Nella, who has discovered pragmatism, and Thea, innocent, excited, in love, naive, curious, avid for adventures, fearless, in a way a mirror of what she was when she arrived as a newlywed at the Herengracht.
The author herself has grown hand in hand with her characters, and now that she is a mother she sees things from a different perspective that has helped her make her protagonist evolve. She has had a hard time digesting the fame that her first book gave her, and that brought her almost to the brink of depression. She protects her privacy from her, she has a very limited presence on social media, and does not divulge her name or her partner or her child. “Taking care of Nella – she affirms – has been a therapeutic experience, a form of exorcism”. Will there be a third part of the saga? It is an open question. She would also like to enter the world of fantasy and children’s literature, theater, magical realism, “respond to what I carry inside of me.” In any case, she feels lucky, privileged, and her success no longer scares her.
