The seventh mansion
(Book)

"A sensitive and awkward loner who is deeply concerned with the environment, sixteen-year-old Xie finds community in his rural town with Jo and Leni, two queer girls his age, with whom he frees some captive mink from a local farm. When Xie is the only one caught, his small world gets smaller: Kicked out of high school, he becomes increasingly connected with nature, spending his time in the birch woods behind his house, attending extremist activist meetings, and serving as a custodian for what others ignore, abuse, and discard. Exploring the woods alone one night, Xie finds the relic of a Catholic saint hidden in a nearby church. Regal and dressed in ornate armor, it captivates him. After weeks of visits, Xie steals the skeleton, hides it in his attic bedroom, and develops a passionate relationship with the bones and spirit of the saint--the martyred Pancratius, or P.--who becomes Xie's companion. But when Xie's beloved woods are threatened by loggers, he and P. go to great lengths to protect them as Xie struggles to balance his conflicting--and increasingly extreme--ideals of purity, sacrifice, and responsibility. When the logging finally begins, blood is suddenly on the leaves."--,Provided by publisher.