Praise for Craig Cliff and The Mannequin Makers "A book that makes grand promises and delivers . . . [
The Mannequin Makers] takes flight in a way that comes close to magic realism, with the characters and events falling into a gothic swoon. . . . Craig Cliff adds to the canon, but with such ambition, creativity and sheer energy that he shows there's still something new to say."
--New York Times "[
The Mannequin Makers] is a strikingly vivid tale full of startling yet believable twists anchored by the compassionate portrayal of lives overrun with obsession and the drive for perfection. It is an original and gripping read, a rich book by an accomplished writer."
--Los Angeles Review of Books "Cliff altogether offers a quirky voice that falls outside of much American commercial fiction. This esotericism, along with determined prose, clever bits of timeless social critique, and an eye for setting, makes
The Mannequin Makers a pleasurable read."
--Chicago Review of Books "At times moving, often entertaining and exuberantly told."
--Minneapolis Star Tribune "New Zealander Cliff makes a stunning American debut with a story about obsession gone horribly wrong. . . . This is a spellbinding and original tale, rife with perilous journeys, fascinating historical detail, and memorable characters."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "In Craig Cliff's world everything breathes . . . He dresses loneliness in its most dramatic garb, lacing it with vice, virtue, and dispassion, and casting it all in the gnawing shadow of grief: for lost loved ones, for rash decisions, for the isolation that comes with victimhood."
--Arkansas International "A grim and glorious meditation on the cruelty of fate."
--Kirkus "Craig Cliff has brought turn-of-the-century Australia and New Zealand entirely to life in his haunting novel. With shades of Herman Melville and Richard Flanagan, it is a story of dark obsessions and family entanglements that will pull you in like a strong undertow. There are shipwrecks and deserted islands and uncanny illusions. But it's Cliff's writing about wood carving and the New Zealand landscape that lends the novel its beautiful lyricism."
--Eowyn Ivey, author of To the Bright Edge of the World "Cliff is a talent to watch and set to take the literary world by storm."
--Citation for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book "Cliff is a determined and fiercely gifted writer, and the attention given to the details of his chosen settings, as a novel about a window dresser surely must be, is impressive."
--The Australian "An engaging and deadly smart novel, one that wears a great deal of historical research lightly and that nicely plays out one engrossing theme: the human compulsion to produce ideal images of humanity, and the way those images and illusions are written back onto living bodies and lives. . . .
The Mannequin Makers lives up to . . . Cliff as a talent to watch--it's tremendous, darkly entertaining and original from start to finish."
--New Zealand Listener "At once fantastical and deeply human. Reminiscent of the likes of Peter Carey's
Oscar and Lucinda or Tim Winton's
Cloudstreet, there is something delightfully off-kilter, imaginative and original in Cliff's storytelling that is a reminder that storytelling can be anything it chooses to be. . . . This is a superb novel of parental obsession, the lure of the unattainable and the tragedy inherent within human nature."
--The Hoopla
Become an affiliate
