The Chemistry of Tears

I read The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey which is set in two time periods - 19th Century and 21st Century.  A museum conservator, Catherine, learns that her married lover has died and is inconsolable.  Her supervisor gives her a new project to work on to help with her grief.  She finds she has to restore a  motorised swan and there are accompanying notebooks written by Henry, the man who travelled to Germany to have this built to take home to his very ill son.  So the reader learns about both characters and what they are enduring.31/2/5