The Manikin

by Joanna Scott

The Manikin is not a mannequin, but the curious estate of Henry Craxton, Sr. in a rural western New York State. Dubbed the "Henry Ford of Natural History," by 1917 Craxton has become America's preeminent taxidermist. Into this magic box of a world--filled with eerily inanimate gibbons and bats, owls and peacocks, quetzals and crocodiles--wanders young Peg Griswood, daughter of Craxton's newest housekeeper. Part coming-of-age story, part gothic mystery, and part exploration of the intimate embrace between art and life, "The Manikin" is compulsively readable and beautifully written.