Spotlight for The Library of Lost Dollhouses by Elise Hooper

 

The Library of Lost Dollhouses by Elise Hooper

Published:  April 1, 2025 by William Morrow Paperbacks

Genre:  Historical Fiction, Books About Books

Taken from Goodreads:  When a young librarian discovers historic dollhouses in a hidden room, she embarks on an unexpected journey that reveals surprising secrets about the lost miniatures.

Tildy Barrows, Head Curator of a beautiful archival library in San Francisco, is meticulously dedicated to the century’s worth of inventory housed in her beloved Beaux Art building. She loves the calm and order in the shelves of books and walls of art. But Tildy’s uneventful life takes an unexpected turn when she, first, learns the library is on the verge of bankruptcy and, second, discovers two exquisite never-before-seen dollhouses. After finding clues hidden within these remarkable miniatures, Tildy starts to believe that Belva Curtis LeFarge, the influential heiress who established the library a century ago, is conveying a significant final message.

With a newfound sense of spontaneity, Tildy sets out to decipher the secret history of the dollhouses, aiming to salvage her cherished library in the process. Her journey to understand introduces her to a world of ambitious and gifted women in Belle Époque Paris, a group of scarred World War I veterans in the English countryside, and Walt Disney’s bustling Burbank studio in the 1950s. As Tildy unravels the mystery, she finds not only inspiring, overlooked history, but also a future for herself, filled with exciting possibilities—and an astonishing familial revelation.

Spanning the course of a century, The Library of Lost Dollhouses is a warm, bright, and captivating story of secrets and love that embraces the importance of illuminating overlooked women of the past.

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Meet the Author (taken from herwebsite):  A native New Englander, Elise Hooper spent several years writing for television and online news outlets before getting a MA and teaching high-school literature and history. Her debut novel The Other Alcott was a nominee for the 2017 Washington Book Award. Three more novels—Learning to See, Fast Girls, and Angels of the Pacific—followed, all centered on the lives of extraordinary but overlooked historical women. Her next book, The Library of Lost Dollhouses (releasing 4.1.25) is inspired by a dollhouse that’s been in her family for five generations. Elise lives in Seattle with her husband and two daughters.

ADVANCE PRAISE:

 

“A straight-laced San Francisco librarian is surrounded by a dazzling cast of characters in Hooper’s latest, which jumps from modern day to Belle Époque Paris before taking off like a rocket through the 20^th century. An exploration of the link between art and artist, the secrets women must maintain in order to survive in a man’s world, as well as the caustic effects of withholding the truth from those we love most. This one’s an absolute gem.”

—Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Stolen Queen

 

“Elise Hooper’s The Library of Lost Dollhouses is impressively shape-shifting. It’s a story that ranges over a century and continents, but it’s also a portrait of the artist as a young — and not so young — woman. It’s a coming-of-age tale — two in fact — but it’s also a beguiling mystery. And in every incarnation, it’s as inspiring and extravagantly detailed as the miniatures at its heart.”

—Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of Family Family

 

"Who would have guessed at the transformative secrets a long-forgotten dollhouse could hold? In Elise Hooper's wonderful The Library of Lost Dollhouses, librarian Tildy Burrows discovers two mysterious miniature realms. As she reassembles the pieces of the dollhouses' puzzle -- traversing an array of times and places to do so -- an unknown image of the past and the historic women inhabiting it begins to materialize before her. As Tildy solves the dollhouses' mysteries, she also answers long-standing questions about herself in this compelling tale." 

—Marie Benedict, New York Times bestselling author of The Queens of Crime

 

“Elise Hooper’s latest marvel takes readers on an enchanting journey from San Francisco to Paris, love to war, deception to redemption, as her main character—a little-known artist—moves out of the shadows into the limelight. This beautiful page-turner kept me reading all night.”

—Janet Skeslien Charles, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Library 

 

“Elise Hooper's latest heartwarming novel, The Library of Lost Dollhouses, is as intricately detailed as a dollhouse itself and full of remarkable heroines, from twentieth-century ones who bravely made history happen to modern ones drawing inspiration from their efforts. Hooper takes the reader on a wonderful, whirlwind tour of some of last century's most intense and dramatic times. I simply could not put this book down until I found out how all these amazing characters reunited with family, lost loves, and the amazingly described works of craftsmanship at its heart.”

—Natalie Jenner, internationally bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society