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 Joanna Scott''s The Manikin is compulsively readable and beautifully written.