An automaton a man & a woman who can never meet a secret love story & the fate of the world are all brought to life in this hauntingly moving novel from one of the finest writers of our time. Its London 2010 Catherine Gehrig conservator at the Swinburne museum learns of the unexpected death of her colleague & lover of thirteen years. As the mistress of a married man she has to grieve in private. One other person knows their secret the director of the museum who arranges for Catherine to be given a special project away from prying eyes. Mad with grief the usually controlled & rational Catherine discovers a series of handwritten notebooks telling the story of the man who originally commissioned the extraordinary & eerie automata she has been asked to bring back to life. With a precocious new assistant Amanda at her side she starts to piece together both the clockwork puzzle & the story of the mechanical creature which was commissioned in 19th century Germany by an English man Henry Brandling as a magical amusement for his consumptive son. Having been asked to leave his home by his wife Henry turns his hurtful departure into an adventure that he records for his young child. But it is Catherine Gehrig in a strangely stormy & overheated London nearly two hundred years later who will find comfort & wonder in reading Henrys story. & it is the automata in its beautiful uncanny imitation of life that will link two strangers confronted with the mysteries of life & death the miracle & catastrophe of human invention & the bodys astonishing chemistry of love & feeling.