" This novel is about Catherine Gehrig who works at a museum in London and is responsible for restoring clocks and other automaton pieces. At the start of the book, she learns her lover of 13 yeas, Matthew, has died. This sends her into a tailspin of tears, emotional outbursts, irrational behavior and more. Her boss at the musuem (and a friend of Matthew's) gives her the task of repairing and restoring an automaton from the 1850s. Along with the automaton are several diaries written by the man who commissioned the piece, Henry Brandling. Catherine's story and Henry's story are told in alternating chapters. While I generally liked Catherine's character, her misery and her wallowing in it wore a bit thin. At the end of the book, I had expected more to have had happened. I felt it ended seemingly a bit unfinished. "
— Gretchen, 2/20/2014