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The Mystery of Castle MacGorilla

The Mystery of Castle MacGorilla

By David Bentley Hart and Patrick Robert Hart

Illustrations by Jerome Atherholt

190 pp

$17.95
$17.95
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About the Book

After providing readers with a wealth of history, theology, philosophy, short story, cultural commentary, and literary criticism, it is fitting that David Bentley Hart — here accompanied by his son Patrick — finally turn to the genre perhaps closest to his heart: children’s literature.

It is known, of course, that soft toys — teddy bears, cotton-stuffed rabbits, velveteen squids, and the like — are all but incapable of deceit, greed, or criminality. And yet, when the treasure of the ancient MacGorilla clan is stolen from their castle in the Scottish Highlands, it seems that one or more of the soft toys gathered there must surely be the culprit, or culprits. Trapped in the castle with his fellow toys by an unexpected snow storm, one small bear, with the aid of an even smaller pig and an easily distracted ape, must discover where the treasure is and who took it. Along the way adventures and perils abound: hidden passages, a lost library, a chase through a moonlit maze, flooding stairwells, rubber balls, paper clips, waffles, garbled aphorisms, and ever so much more. Never has such a weight of responsibility rested upon such soft, fluffy shoulders.



Praise

“Perhaps it is for the best that Agatha Christie, Kenneth Grahame, and Emma Goldman never got around to collaborating, for then there might be a precedent for this charming and impishly subversive tale, its heart as wide as a hundred-acre wood.”

— MICHAEL ROBBINS

“David Bentley Hart and his son Patrick Robert have crafted a charming, beautifully written whodunit that manages to be both deeply familiar and surprising.”

— JAKOB ZIGURAS

“A profound and thoroughly enjoyable tale, told with wit, sophistication, richness of narrative, and incisive moral acuity. Both children and adults will relish this wise and enlightening story, as ‘fine and generous and goodhearted’ as Laird MacGorilla himself.”

— EUGENE MCCARRAHER

“Delightful. The Mystery of Castle MacGorilla reads beautifully and I’ll certainly be getting it for a few young friends!”

— RUPERT SHORTT



About the Author

David Bentley Hart is an Eastern Orthodox scholar of religion, and a philosopher, writer, and cultural commentator. His latest books are That All Shall Be Saved and The New Testament: A Translation.

Patrick Robert Hart is a writer who, as yet, is still deciding which course his life is to take.

About the Illustrator

JEROME ATHERHOLT is a graduate of the Schuler School of Fine Art in Baltimore, MD where he also taught for 11 years. For the last 23 years he has been a senior artist at FIRAXIS Games in Maryland and lives with his family in Pennsylvania. 

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