Doll's Eye

by Leah Kaminsky

Anna Winter, a young woman unwittingly caught up inside a ring of sophisticated Nazi spies, chooses to flee Germany in 1933, taking her precious doll collection with her as she sets sail for Australia. Soon after her arrival she finds herself in a remote outback town, working as a nanny for the family of Tom O’ Hara, owner of the Birdum Hotel. Doubling up as the local bartender and cook, Anna hides her past from the world, until a chance encounter with an eccentric stranger, Alter Mayseh, changes everything. A Yiddish poet fleeing persecution, Alter has seen the writing on the wall for his people. Armed with a letter of introduction from Albert Einstein, he manages to flee Europe, arriving in Australia in 1938 in search of a safe place he can call home. The odd pair fall in love, finding a sense of belonging and hope in each other. However, suspicious that a dark past has followed Anna across both oceans and desert, Alter is determined to unravel the mysterious secrets she may hold. One day, he stumbles across a clue that threatens to destroy the delicate life Anna has built on top of her hidden past.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Book Club, Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published September 12, 2023

About the author

Leah Kaminsky, is a physician and award-winning writer. Her debut novel The Waiting Room won the Voss Literary Prize and was shortlisted for the Helen Asher Award. The Hollow Bones, won the 2019 International Book Awards in both Historical Fiction & Literary Fiction Categories. Doll's Eye will be published in 2023. We’re all Going to Die has been described as ‘a joyful book about death’. She edited Writer MD and co-authored Cracking the Code. Her poetry collection, Stitching Things Together, was a finalist in the Anne Elder Award. She holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Reviews

[Neale · Rating 4 out of 5]

The opening prologue opens in 1949, Australia. Anna Winter is a doll repairer. She never asks how a doll was damaged or why it’s so special. Asking no questions, Anna prefers the company of the dolls, not the owners.

Chapter one takes us back to 1938 Warsaw. Trying to escape Hitler’s persecution and tightening grip on Europe, Alter, “ a Yiddish poet chasing a dream, looking for somewhere to rest his bones”, flees to the furthest place he can find from Warsaw. Birdum is a remote town in Australia, the last stop on the North Australian Railway. It’s also the same place that Anna escaped to. But we are not told why Anna fled Germany. She is not Jewish. Anna keeps her past to herself, never revealing it when asked.
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As time passes, Anna and Alter fall in love. But Alter, understandably so, wishes to know more about her and why she is so secretive about her past. A past that once revealed may shatter the love they have just found.

Anna’s past is slowly revealed with the narrative alternating between the present and the past. We find out why she escaped to Australia and that her secrets may result from Anna herself not understanding what happened as a child.

This is not a war novel, but Hitler’s hatred and pogroms of the Jews is a backdrop used to explore themes of displacement and persecution. Themes about the basic human need to live in safety, and to be able to call somewhere home.

An enjoyable love story, which I believe could have been better if it was a little longer, giving more depth to the two main characters.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

As regular readers of my reviews know, I have strong reservations about the commodification of The Holocaust in crass commercial fiction. With thanks to Anna Blay who brought it to my attention, this article, ‘Too much Holocaust fiction – and too loose with the facts’ by Miriam Cosic says it better than I can: it's a cogent critique of the plethora of romance fiction exploiting the Holocaust as an “exotic” location.

But as Kim Kelly says in her review of Doll's Eye by Melbourne author Leah Kaminsky, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor who tells her mother's tragic story here...

Using the Holocaust as a dramatic backdrop to romance is a popular device in commercial fiction, and an often problematic one, especially where the unimaginable, criminal violence of the concentration camps and ghettoes is exploited for its horror, and where Jews are reduced to emblematic, eternal victims. But Doll’s Eye contains no such sensationalism or trivialisation.

There needs to be a reason to write fiction about the Holocaust, and I agree with Bram Presser who said, at the 2018 Melbourne Jewish Book Week that books about the Holocaust ought to contribute something new, or not be written at all.

Kaminsky's book does just that.  It raises awareness about the abuse of medical research which betrays the Hippocratic Oath and it demonstrates the pervasiveness of the antisemitism which enabled the Holocaust.  By siting remote Australia as her characters' place of refuge, Kaminsky shows that even the metaphorical ends of the earth were permeated by this evil.  Doll's Eye also raises the issue of intergenerational guilt among the descendants of Nazis.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/09/22/d...

[Theresa Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four years ago, Leah Kaminsky released The Hollow Bones, to date, still one of the best novels I’ve ever read. Doll’s Eye is her latest release, and it once again tells a story of Nazism and science. It’s a cautionary tale, about the judgements we can make by only seeing what’s on the surface of a person, their history, and where they come from.

Once again, I have been informed by Leah of a horrifying scientific aspect of Nazism that I had no idea existed. It’s like a bottomless well, isn’t it, when you look behind the curtain. Told with chilling brevity, this novel moves back and forth through time seamlessly, revealing as it goes, the horror building, the truth being exposed, not just to the reader, but to the characters also.

Anna was a memorable character, her determination to leave her past that she was unwittingly pulled into as a child, her grief for her lost mother, father, and entire history, her love for her dolls and the maintenance and creation of them. Alter’s treatment of her, however he justified it, was wrong and not at all demonstrative of a man in love.

This is not a long novel, but therein is part of its power. Leah writes what is necessary, but with layers beneath for you to continue to turn over within your own mind, long after you’ve finished reading. The sense of time and place is strong and highly atmospheric. Another stunning release from Leah Kaminsky that I highly recommend to all.

Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.

[Kathe Forrest · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story locations are: Australia, Germany - dates 1920- 1949. It begins at the end but really innocuous and not giving anything away. I found it odd and the story did not make much sense but it grew on me.
I will read more of Kaminsky’s work.

What to say - a woman who wants to disappear and leave her past behind so she travels as far away as possible. Small town in NT or Northern Territory.
Not enough written about the aboriginal tribe involvement although there are sentences alluded to.
Gave it a three because it did that leaving out and needed more concrete story line.
Deep thoughts though and I learned about something else the Nazis did to people. Experiments!!! Yuck

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

[This read was a real surprise and had a particular interest to me, having been a porcelain doll maker and sculptor of porcelain portraits, the setting of the dolls eyes hasn't changed. Glass paperweight eyes are still used, although silicon eyes are more easily fixed, still using plaster of Paris.]

I loved this book, the author is to be congratulated for the extensive vocabulary that is not often used today. The compassion and understanding regarding Australia's Indigenous peoples and the loss of their traditional language is felt by Alter Mayseh as he writes his verses in Hebrew, an ancient language he feels is also slowly dying.

The read has two main characters that are complex and wanting, wanting in life; both experiencing the “flight elements” that befall some. 

Alter Mayseh is secretary of the Yiddish Writers Union in Warsaw he is an ardent traveller and he presses Rinek the new director for him to embark on another journey. His desire is to find a country where he will be free with opportunities for him to prosper but he lacks the financial resources to do so even with all his travels selling the Yiddish newspaper. Alter is a romantic poet for whom sometimes is accused of having his head in the clouds and at a dinner, he makes the outrageous statement that he wishes to travel to Australia. His remark has an immediate response by others at the dining table of total astonishment, to the ends of this earth! To press his case he demonstrates the size of Australia by comparing Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Belgium and the UK all of which fit neatly into the Australian land mass with room to spare, surely with all that space there would be room for him. For all his outlandishness, Alter knows that bad things are going to happen to Jews with the Hitler on the march. He had to convince the others that it was time to leave, his people were being shunned and attacked. Jewish immigrants were unwanted by most of the world but surely, Alter thinks such a large country like Australia had fewer locks on immigration than other countries. After the trashing and burning of his brother's shop left plastered with swastikas he once again pleas for financial assistance for his trip and after some impatient responses he realises that their newspaper actually has an Australian subscriber and with that he finds himself on a boat after this subscriber's sponsorship paid for him and he is destined for the town he stabbed a pin to, Birdum, a town in the desolate middle of the country.

Anna's story has her already living in Birdum, she is the manager of a pub (hotel), a position that she was given when the owner, a recent widower sent his two young daughters back to the city, Anna had been their nanny. For Anna, this desolate place has given her the solace she needs, her mental health is still connected to the war, her mother's death when she was only seven leaving her in the care of her father, his unusual position as a chauffeur to a Professor Jäger where she stayed at his country home at Lansburg am Lech (Hitler's prison and the Nazi Youth), the resistance movement and the horrific experiments that eventuated by doctors. A small baby at birth, Anna's father knew that to keep her safe he would need to be carer and teacher. Born with a small birth defect that most would find fascinating but to doctors attending to Hitler the experiments had already begun on baby rabbits for which Anna as a child witnessed. All this and her fleeing from Germany with a new name and only with her beloved doll collection as company, Anna’s trauma remains.

Alter lands in Birdum as part of his Australia discovery only to find that due to the wet season arriving early he's stuck there. The new train line has been built but train and tracks are flooded. He is intrigued with Anna and is rather glad that he can spend more time with her. 

The couple fall in love but this is ruined when after they leave Birdum Alter discovers something of her past that even Anna hadn't been aware of.

As the war progresses, Anna, as a German is interned at a camp where she comes into contact with people who eventually give her the safety and care she has wanted for so long. She loses contact with Alter but out of the blue a presence reminds her of him.

[Jacquie Garton-Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve loved all of Leah Kaminsky’s books and DOLL’S EYE is no exception.

DOLL’S EYE follows Anna Winter who has fled 1930s Germany for Birdum (NT), and is working in the hotel when Yiddish poet, Alter Mayseh, travels through. The chapters jump backwards and forwards through time and across continents bringing the threads of the story together as more is revealed. The writing is crisp and evocative, drawing on confronting topics and striking symbolism to create a compelling story with relatable complex characters and lots of heart.

Stunning literary historical fiction. The themes will stay with me for a long time.

[Hermien · Rating 2 out of 5]

It felt somewhat contrived to me.

[Andrea Rothman · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unusual love story between a Yiddish poet and a German doll maker who unknowingly bears a terrible secret, a haunting tale of loss, discovery, and reinvention, set against the backdrop of 1930’s Europe and Australia. I loved this book.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing read

[Efrat · Rating 5 out of 5]

The literary achievement of this great book reminds me of Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Here too, a war time epoch is unfolding through the lenses of the protagonists. This incredible book seems to merge together with much delicacy, subtleness and wisdom the complex characters of Anna and Alter, their cultural burdens, intercultural merges and clashes with the Australian society, ranging from the far Australian Outback to the ‘European’ Melbourne. It is a story of torment, escape and survival, weaved within the reality of people and historical events. On the backdrop of the sheer cruelty of this period, Leah Kaminsky is able dive deep and bring to light much beauty, through the Yiddish texts, the descriptions of nature, landscapes and the subtlety of relationships. Highly recommend reading.

[Denise Tannock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Strange and interesting book written by a Melbourne doctor.

[Yvonne Sanders]

Born with heterochromia (two different coloured eyes) at just the wrong time and place in history, Anna Winter finds herself the subject of intrigue and evil intent in the brewing calamity of 1930s Germany. At the insistence of her widowed father, she flees her homeland, taking only her precious collection of dolls with her. She settles in outback Australia where she meets and falls in love with Yiddish poet Alter Mayseh. But Anna’s life is haunted by the shadows of the past, shadows that threaten to unravel her life and love.

WWII historical fiction enthusiasts are sure to find this a compelling read.

[Gavan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have given this 4 stars for writing, but some aspects didn't work for me: the links to Hitler lacked credibility (and the practical aspect of passing notes); some of the characters at Birdum felt too caricature / stereotypical / predictable. But don't take this criticism too harshly - it was an entertaining book that is worth reading if only for another angle on the Jewish diaspora in Australia after the war.

[Sharon Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story, horrific inspiration that caused it. Unbelievable that such cruelty could be afflicted on children.
I did feel that lots of sections of the story were either left hanging or finished too quickly. Primarily the main relationship, would she not have fought a bit harder? Tried to explain?
All surface, little depth.

[Ann Koenig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another story of Hitler’s attempts to make the Germans perfect.

[Nick Carr · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, I thought it magnificent. The fact that such a feminine and Jewish-focussed book can have strong appeal for an ageing gentile male speaks volumes. I particularly appreciated learning more about Yiddish and some of the aspects of Jewish custom and beliefs that are part of the book.

Kaminsky writes very strongly of place and character, but never at the expense of the narrative. I need to want to keep turning the pages, and this I certainly did, and I thought the plot clever and rewarding. The details about dolls and doll making/repairing also really added to the reader’s experience.

My only gripes? (Spoiler alert) - Anna seemed to transition from a chaste lass who’d never so much as been kissed to an enthusiastic participant in fairly quick time. Fair enough, maybe after all that waiting… but I was surprised there was no comment about how the locals, who presumably had spent the last 5 years hoping to get where Alter went, responded. After all, he was the unwelcome Jewish visitor AND he ends up capturing the town prize..? And there didn’t seem too much concern about pregnancy, despite their energetic pursuit of the route thereto. Maybe that’s just the father of daughters in me.

I respect a book where a particular sentence makes me smile because it’s so elegant. There were plenty of those. And Kaminsky’s love of languages shines through, not just with the descriptions of Yiddish, but with smatterings of German, Russian and even Welsh. Gorgeous.

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Sometimes it is easier to look at things we do not wish to see.’

Anna Winter leaves Germany in 1933, setting sail for Australia with her precious doll collection. In the remote outback town of Birdum, Anna works as a nanny for the family of Tom O’Hara owner of the Birdum Hotel. Anna also works as bartender and cook, and this is how she meets Alter Mayseh.
Alter Mayseh, a Yiddish poet from Warsaw, could see what was coming for his people. He managed to flee Europe in 1938 and travelled to Australia searching for a safe place to call home. He and Anna are attracted to each other, but Alter is suspicious about Anna’s past.

Anna is ashamed of her past, while Alter is optimistic for the future. And here I was, in the middle. Caught between wondering whether Anna should feel ashamed (were her actions deliberate, or inadvertent?) and wondering whether Alter could appreciate the context of those actions. The broader question – of guilt – is harder to address. Should a child, caught up in the actions of adults, be responsible for the consequences of those actions? Sigh.

I wanted a different ending for this story: like Anna, I prefer ‘tales with happy endings’, and yet I am standing there with Alter, observing and questioning.

A challenging, rewarding read.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doll's Eye was recommended as a Year 10 class novel for 2025, and it sounded intriguing, so I decided to try it. The story follows Anna Winter. Her unusual eyes have caught the attention of those trying to promote Aryan supremacy, with their focus on blue eyes and blonde hair so she flees Germany in late 1933 for Birdum, Australia, bringing her cherished doll collection along.

Anna manages to obtain a job at the local pub, where she meets Alter Mayseh, a Yiddish poet who has travelled to Australia in the hope of finding a safe place to live. The two fall in love, but Anna’s past remains a secret, one she is reluctant to reveal.

The prologue grabbed my attention, and I thought I was in for a compelling read. However, the author lost me at times. The plot alternates between Anna's past in Europe and her life in the Australian outback, but it felt disjointed at points, and I found the storyline lacking in depth.

As I read on, the story did improve somewhat, but not enough to fully win me over, though I did find the doll-making and repair aspects quite interesting. Unfortunately, I don’t think Doll's Eye will resonate with our Year 10 students. There isn't enough to capture their attention or sustain their interest.

[Caren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I appreciated Kaminsky's detailed descriptions of the Australian outback, to which her two main characters had escaped from war-torn Eastern Europe in the late 1930s. However, this aspect of the narrative was not enough to draw me into the novel. The Yiddish poet, Alter Mayseh, and the German migrant, Anna, were not convincing characters for me, rather players in a confusing scenario built around the horror of the Nazi racist ideology of Hitler's Final Solution. Meeting in 1938 in outback Australia, the two fall in love, the secrets of Anna's past remaining an obstacle to their relationship and hidden to the reader until the end of the novel.

(Spoiler Alert) As Anna slowly recalls the childhood memories of her relationship with her beloved father and of her cherished doll, Lalka, there is the mystery of the connection between the doll, Anna's mixed-colour eyes, and the visits she makes with her father to a mysterious professor's home in Landsberg. I found the revelation far-fetched and failed to comprehend how the activities conducted there involving the dolls were part of the Nazi campaign if the dolls were distributed intact. Disappointing.

[Jenny Esots · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good storyteller leads the reader part of the way, leaving enough details to keeping you guessing.
This is a story of immigrants searching for a place to call home.
Of travellers, poets and dreamers. Of those seeking new beginnings and those trapped in a very unforgiving land.
The story crisscrosses through Germany, outback Australia and the streets of inner Melbourne.
Let me assert again, a good writer does not fill in all the detail, but leaves room for the reader to fill in the gaps.
There are plenty of gaps to fill here, as the main character Anna spends her motherless childhood with a series of people who form the underground nazi movement. Nothing short of Hitler himself.
It is quite a story. Anna comes to the other side of the world to start again and we will her to succeed.
The doll theme throughout is a stirring vehicle for this narrative.
Leah Kaminski is a writer worth following.

[Erika Dreifus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was offered an advance copy for review and possible endorsement.

My summary:

"In Doll’s Eye the latest novel by acclaimed Australian author Leah Kaminsky, even those readers who think they’ve encountered nearly everything set within the shadows of World War II and the Holocaust are likely to discover something new. Most notably, Kaminsky places her European protagonists—one a German woman escaping a secret, stunning past; the other a prominent male Yiddishist from Warsaw—within the remote Australian town of Birdum, rendered with lush and vivid descriptions. Infused with history both familiar and less so, Doll’s Eye draws the reader in and sustains suspense throughout. A most satisfying read."

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Switching back and forth in different time periods and places, Doll's Eye by Leah Kaminsky (2023) is a historical fiction tale. It begins in 1949, when a woman brings her doll into a shop in Carlton, to be repaired by Anna. As she watches Anna, the glass eye falls to the floor and smashes to pieces. This sets off a number of memories for Anna, including her childhood in Europe and her arrival in Australia. Through these flashbacks in time, we learn of her life and the mysterious hidden past of her father. The narrative is somewhat jouncy or a series of vignettes that is a pleasant three stars feel-good rating. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own, freely given and without inducement.

[Athene Alleck · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel terrible giving only 3 stars but I felt like the overall book didn’t have the depth to hold together all the interesting concepts and ideas. I loved ‘Hollow Bones’ and the authors writing style. I just felt like this story had too many ideas too loosely connected. However, as I write this, I’m thinking maybe this sense was deliberate … broken dolls, refugees, psychotic nazis, white invasion & the wilds of Outback Australia. The lost Yiddish language … the ever present threat of antisemitism… Maybe the stability we feel is actually imagined and the world is just a broken place full of meaningless chotchkas.

[Glenys · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story moves in time and place. Beginning in 1938 when Anna is working in an outback Australian hotel. She is managing the hotel and has been there five years.
We slip back in time to her childhood in Germany. Her memories are confused - she was just nine years old when the journey with her father to the professor's country house.
Who are the people she meets? Why are they interested in her?
Her doll Lalka is her friend and confidante. Lalka's eyes are different colours - just like Anna's.

Gripping, frightening.
A real page turned as the story develops gradually and the truth emerges from the mists of time.

[Cel Jel · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me quite a while to get into this book, but I continued reading. Then I realized all I was visiting through the story and what I was learning. I became engrossed. There are some amazing passages where the prose made me stop to reread it (took my breath away). I have hand written some of the sentences into my record sentences I what to see again. I put the attributions and page of the edition I read with the quotes. Leah has very much raised in this book aspects of what 'man' does to 'man'.

[Chris Waterford · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most interesting thing in this novel was the existence of the tiny (now ghost) settlement of Birdum in Central Australia. The story was very slow (apart from a whirlwind 5 minute romance)---and the surprise at the end was unsettling.
6/10

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED this novel. Couldn’t put it down! Full of intrigue with beautiful characters and rich description. Highly recommend it!

[Ingrid · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was drawn in by the first chapter, but after that I realised with every further chapter that this book wasn't for me.

[Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book had a solid start but after that it left loose ends everywhere. At best it felt like a draft and all the characters and story lines were unfinished.

[Julie Mason · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just as I felt I was following this story, it completely changed. There was so much that I felt was missing. It was jumpy and clunky and could have been so much better.