Animal Wrongs
by Stephen Spotte

$16.00

Description

“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

“Threaded with unique and sardonic humor, full and powerful, ANIMAL WRONGS is an off-beat exploration of human nature.” ―Ed Ricciuti, author, Bears in the Backyard

Historical fiction and preposterous legal arguments intertwine in Stephen Spotte’s electric new novel Animal Wrongs, set in a medieval French courtroom where animals are put on trial for “crimes” against mankind. Sixteenth-century lawyers fill the air with bluster, heckled and cheered by spectators as they defend or prosecute accused animals facing penalties of being hanged or burned alive at the stake. Spotte deftly unveils a story of opposing attorneys facing off against each other in ever-more opaque, convoluted, and dilatory trials. By the end of this novel, Spotte uses his considerable, critically-acclaimed storytelling skills to explore still-relevent theories on legal precedent, the church vs. the state, mankind’s place in nature, and animal rights.


ANIMAL WRONGS by Stephen Spotte
ISBN: 978-1953103093; Trade Paper Original; 386 pages; $16; October 19, 2021

High Praise for ANIMAL WRONGS

“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

“Threaded with unique and sardonic humor, full and powerful, ANIMAL WRONGS is an off-beat exploration of human nature.” —Ed Ricciuti, author, Bears in the Backyard

“[An] amusing and clever book. It is the first book I have read by Spotte, but it will not be the last.” —The Fish Shelf


High Praise for Stephen Spotte

“Spotte is a master storyteller.” Library Journal

“A particularly inviting read that stands out from the crowd.” Midwest Book Review

“Even somebody who doesn’t love historical fiction as much as I do could get on with it. .. Funny and approachable to read.” Reviews Feed


About Stephen Spotte

Dr. Stephen Spotte was raised in West Virginia, and after traveling the world’s high seas, he now makes his home in Longboat Key, FL. He is the author or coauthor of more than 80 scientific papers on marine biology, ocean chemistry and engineering, and aquaculture, which became the cornerstone of modern aquarium keeping. His popular articles about the sea have appeared in National Wildlife, On the Sound, Animal Kingdom, and Science Digest.

Dr. Spotte has been a field biologist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station (Vicksburg, MS); curator and later director of the Aquarium of Niagara Falls (NY); curator of the New York Aquarium and Osborn Laboratories of Marine Science (Brooklyn, NY); director of Mystic Aquarium (Mystic, CT); executive director of Sea Research Foundation and research scientist at the Marine Sciences and Technology Center, University of Connecticut (Groton, CT); principal investigator, Coral Reef Ecology Program (Turks and Caicos Islands, B.W.I.), and adjunct scientist at Mote Marine Laboratory (Sarasota, FL). His research has encompassed much of the coastal U.S., Canadian Arctic, Bering Sea, West Indies, Indo-West Pacific, Central America, and the Amazon basin of Ecuador and Brazil.

Dr. Spotte has published eighteen books, including three volumes of fiction, a memoir, and a work of cultural theory. He is a Certified Wildlife Biologist of The Wildlife Society and also holds a U.S. Merchant Marine officer’s license.