The Taxidermist's Daughter by Kate Mosse

The setting is dark, omnipresent and a threat in itself. Why read this book? The setting is richly described and hangs heavily over the story. It is only when she finds something in common with a new acquaintance, midway through the story, that you get much sense of how lonely she is. Her only thoughts are of her father, her work and trying to recover her memory.

Connie is portrayed as very self-contained individual, but never described as lonely. Connie herself has lost all her childhood memories after a terrible fall as a child and suffers the occasional seizure as a result. The profession of taxidermy holds them as separate from the community, and as it is no longer as desirable for families to have stuffed animals in the home, the business is seen as somewhat strange. While she is the taxidermist’s daughter, she is the only one in the household doing any taxidermy, as her father is a rather physically absent character spending his days drinking. The house is also the workplace for the father’s now dwindling taxidermy business. The book is rather fascinating − I’d love to spend some time with a book club discussing the themes in the book.Ĭonnie Gifford lives with her father, the taxidermist, in a large house alongside the Fishbourne marshes, somewhat apart from the rest of the village. Her latest book, The Taxidermist’s Daughter is a gothic fiction set just before World War One in a village in England. She is most famous for her novel Labyrinth. I haven’t read any of Kate Mosse’s books before and was told that I was in for a treat.

The Taxidermist's Daughter by Kate Mosse