I Inherited a Mixed Animal from Uncle Living in Woods — Richard Martin

I Inherited a Mixed Animal from Uncle Living in Woods is a tale of hillbilly magical realism about the friendship that develops between a cranky fix-it man and the strange animal which fate and a mad scientist uncle drop in his lap. Young misanthrope Lemuel Washington is a self-semi-educated handyman/inventor in the village of Hmm, where he resides in mutual deterrence with his fortune-telling mayoral candidate sister Shane. His hermit uncle perishes in the Unconscious Forest under violently mystical circumstances and bequeaths Lemuel the animal in question. Lem is forced to caretake the inexplicable beast, root out its elusive origins, and safeguard it from its nemeses: the looming Strangitor, Mabel the mountain woman, and Sister Shane. Eventually Lemuel must decide if he will sell the animal, now the one and only thing he loves, in order to save the whole stinking world.