Daunt Books

A dazzlingly original work of fiction, woven into the fabric of historical truth. When museum conservator Catherine Gehrig learns of the death of her married lover and colleague, she is faced with the prospect of grieving in secret, until her boss gives her a special project to occupy her mind. She must piece together the history and mechanics of an eerie mechanical duck, commissioned in nineteenth-century Germany to enliven the spirits of a dangerously ill boy. As Catherine rummages through notebooks in search of clues, she begins to understand the chemistry of love and the cost of deranged genius.

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