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The boy who loved dolls

ISBN: 9781923099838
Format: Hardback
Publisher: Puncher and Wattmann (ADS)
Origin: AU
Release Date: June, 2026

Book Details

An abduction…a series of interviews…an investigation with unthinkable outcomes. Contemporary Gothic at its most inventive: at times, a psychological drama; at times, a tragedy embodying the grotesque and the horrific. The Boy Who Loved Dolls is set in 1987 Australia, mainly at the renowned (and reclusive) French film director, Jean-Jacques Baille’s secluded country residence. Susan Vaughan, an eccentric young film critic and independent documentary-maker, is granted a once-in-a-lifetime chance to conduct a series of video-taped interviews staying with her long-term ‘cultural icon’. Unknown to her she learns that he is also an obsessive collector and restorer of rare and, at times, unnerving dolls. What starts out as an in-depth investigation into the themes, techniques and patterns within his ground-breaking work many featuring his Australian-born wife Anna and a probing dissection of his most recent semi-biographical film slowly turns into a cat-and-mouse game in which we find Baille is leading Susan towards his hidden past and the truth behind his wife’s disappearance.