Tidlige AnmeldereStephen Spotte

In a medieval French courtroom, animals are put on trial for “crimes” against humanity. Chaos ensues. Historical fiction has never been more uproarious as “master storyteller” Stephen Spotte unleashes this wild tale of opposing attorneys battling to defend or prosecute accused animals—including a rat and a pig—facing penalties of being hanged or burned alive at the stake. Based on actual court records, Spotte captures the wit and bluster of the era, where courtrooms were packed with cheering and heckling spectators in ever-more opaque, convoluted, and dilatory trials. By the end of this novel, Spotte uses his critically-acclaimed storytelling skills to explore still-relevant theories on legal precedent, the church vs. the state, mankind’s place in nature, and animal rights. Fans of Umberto Eco, Edward Carey, and Amor Towles will devour ANIMAL WRONGS and its hilarious insights into pride, greed, and some of the most bizarre court trials in history. “A sprightly tale that finds two attorneys in medieval France matching wits over a triptych of unusual cases. . . . This medieval comedy smacks of Monty Python’s bawdy and mischievous sense of humor.” —Kirkus Reviews “Amusing and clever . . . This is the fi rst book I have read by Spotte, but it will not be the last.” —The Fish Shelf “Spotte is a master storyteller.” —Library Journal "Those wacky ecclesiastics of the Middle Ages and beyond, what were they thinking, putting rats and pigs on trial for alleged crimes against humanity? A fascinating read, by turns amusing and provocative.” —Joe Amato, author, Samuel Taylor's Last Night “Threaded with unique and sardonic humor, full and powerful.” —Ed Ricciuti, Author, Bears in the Backyard “A larcenous rat, a murderous pig, and a dangerous lycanthropic wolf are put on trial for their crimes against humanity, and the result is Spotte-on: a tour de force of casuistry wrapped in an argumentative bricolage, an adroitly lunatic mashup.” —Jethro K. Lieberman, Author, Everything Is Jake

In a medieval French courtroom, animals are put on trial for "crimes" against mankind and must rely on preposterous legal diatribes by a court-appointed lawyer to defend them—great for fans of Umberto Eco, Edward Carey, and Amor Towles. Historical fiction has never been more uproarious as "master storyteller" Stephen Spotte unleashes this wild tale of opposing attorneys battling to defend or prosecute accused animals—including a rat and a pig—facing penalties of being hanged or burned alive at the stake. Based on actual court records, Spotte captures the wit and bluster of the era, where courtrooms were packed with cheering and heckling spectators in ever-more opaque, convoluted, and dilatory trials. By the end of this novel, Spotte uses his critically-acclaimed storytelling skills to explore still-relevant theories on legal precedent, the church vs. the state, mankind’s place in nature, and animal rights. Hilarious insights into pride, greed, and some of the most bizarre court trials in the history of the world. Think "Willard" meets "The Name of the Rose."

The Singing Bones recounts the life and times of eighteenth century polymath and explorer Georg Wilhelm Steller, the first European naturalist to visit Alaska. The first to propose that America was originally peopled by migrants from Siberia, Steller was aboard the packet boat St. Peter commanded by Vitus Bering on the Second Great Northern Expedition sponsored by the Russian Admiralty to determine if Asia and North America were connected by land or separated by a sea. When the St. Peter was wrecked on Bering Island in what was later named the Bering Sea, Steller cured the survivors, who were marooned and dying of scurvy, while making remarkable discoveries in natural history. He was first to describe the behavior and biology of the northern fur seal and Steller's sea lion, and his descriptions of the whale-sized Steller's sea cow and spectacled cormorant (both now extinct) are all we know about these exquisite creatures as living beings. The castaways eventually built a small vessel from the St. Peter's wreckage and sailed back to Kamchatka in autumn 1742, where Steller continued his explorations, in part while living with the indigenous Itelmen people. A blend of narrative adventure and biography, this historical first-person novel chronicles the professional visions and conflicted life of a deeply fascinating, flawed, and courageous man who devoted everything to advancing the frontiers of science and improving the lives of the native Siberians.

“Spotte has an eye for ironic detail, couched in vigorous, pragmatic prose. In him, Hemmingway meets Kafka.” —Bruce R. Powers, co-author (with Marshall McLuhan) of The Global Village The 19 stories in marine scientist Stephen Spotte's latest collection penetrate the stormy, watery depth of the human psyche, blending elements of make-believe with sharp, systematic observations and insights into the twisted manifestations of life, love, and death. The tales skip across genres at breakneck speed, mixing humor and pathos with fantasy, sometimes in settings that juxtapose gritty reality with magical realism. Throughout, Spotte scrapes aside the thin patina of everyday existence, offering a glimpse into the strange abyssal world of his imagination.

Stephen Spotte's imaginative novel recounts the tales of a scroungy former alley cat named Jinx, whose memories aren't just his own but those of other cats who existed before him, one of which was Annipe, Cleopatra's pampered pet. Through Annipe's eyes the ancient Mediterranean world of Cleopatra and her legendary lovers, Caesar and Antony, spread before us in all its glory, pathos, and absurdity. Jinx reveals these stories telepathically one night to his stoned and inebriated owner just home after gall bladder surgery. Annipe's memories are bookended by Jinx's own that detail his early scavenging days in bleak urban alleys. “Could not stop reading this unique and curious account of a major period in history. Viewing events that shook the ancient world through the eye of a feline makes one want to view today’s news stories through the same lens. Never read a book with such a unique perspective. And it was fun.”—Edward R. Ricciuti, author of Bears in the Backyard

When a Marine fireteam searches an isolated Vietnamese village believed to be a supply depot for the Viet Cong an IED explodes, leaving only one survivor of the five-man unit. But who is he: Bunny, Hillbilly, Poke, Injun, or "the LT"? Because he is horribly burned, disfigured, and unable to speak, the military doctors don't know, but the people back home in a coal mining camp in southern West Virginia think they know. Most unsettling of all the survivor himself isn't certain who he is. Spanning the landscape from Vietnam's warn-torn jungles to hardscrabble Appalachia, In An Empty Room is a gripping examination of time, memory, consciousness, and selfhood and suggests unanticipated conclusions about the nature of human identity.