The Toymaker is indeed a bold work in terms of narrative scope. Doctor and toymaker Arkady Kulakov's detention in Auschwitz is juxtaposed with his grandson Adam Kulakov's modern-day Faustian pacts with desperate, vulnerable people while overseeing his grandfather's toy empire. As Adam's world unravels, Arkady's troubled past is similarly recounted. While their journeys are not identical, there is much common ground in their stories of privilege, exploitation, and regret.

Structurally, Pieper's use of a dual narrative is creative and evocative; it serves the story well. Pieper handles the contrasting journeys in different time periods with ease and style, rarely losing track of the timeframe depicted or the language at play.

Inevitably, in a short, exquisitely tight parable such as this, there is less scope to move past more stereotypical depictions of good and evil. In this respect, Pieper's key protagonists tend to the monochromatic. This is unfortunate, but no disaster, such is the author's crisp turn of phrase and the efficiency with which he crafts the two differing but comparable fictional journeys.

Pieper achieves said craftsmanship with as much, if not more, assurance than many of his more heralded contemporaries. For this feat alone, his work is worthy of commendation.