The Porcelain Menagerie

The year is 1732 Dresden, a young sculptor Johann Kandler is taken in to the beautiful and dangerous world of King Agustus the Strong, who demands Lifesize porcelain menagerie to showcase his power and might to the world. Johann struggles meeting the King’s possible man but finds allies with the King’s former mistress Maria whose real name is Fatima and her daughter Katharina. Decades earlier Fatima is a Turkish handmaiden chosen to be a mistress after the previous mistress is discarded. Fatima uses her wit & the king’s obsession to survive the brutal court.

 Research & Writing

Jillian Forsberg did an excellent amount of research and writing. I enjoy history, especially history I did not know about. I did not know about this despicable king, King Agustus the Strong. I would call him Agustus the Mad. I didn’t know about Johann, Fatima & Katharina either. I also love how, while this book is standalone, this does tie into Jillian’s debut The Rhino Keeper. Jillian is great with description because I could see the menagerie both the real animals and the porcelain creations. Then again, I do enjoy art as well as history. Chapter 30 there is a chapter about a brutal practice called fox tossing, unfortunately history is not always pleasant.  The Porcelain Menagerie came out on October 21^st and is available now wherever you get your books!