"Who am I? I am Gideon Mack, time-server, charlatan, hypocrite, God's grovelling apologist; the man who saw the stone, the man that was drowned and that the waters gave back, the mad minister who met with the Devil and lived to tell the tale"

Gideon Mack, an errant Church of Scotland minister, doesn't believe in God, the Devil or an afterlife. From the moment he discovers a mysterious standing stone, his life unravels dramatically until he is swept into a river and carried through a deep chasm underground. Miraculously, Mack emerges three days later, battered but alive. He seems, however, to have lost his mind, since he claims to have been rescued and restored to the world by the Devil.

Mixing fantasy, legend and history with a wealth of insight about religion, belief and culture, The Testament of Gideon Mack is an ambitious, mesmerizing novel that combines superlative storytelling with immense imaginative power.

James Robertson's profile page

James Robertson was born in Scotland in 1958. He is the author of several short story and poetry collections and has published the novels The Fanatic, Joseph Knight, and The Testament of Gideon Mack, among others. Joseph Knight won the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year and the Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year, and The Testament of Gideon Mack was longlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize. Robertson runs the independent publishing house Kettillonia, and he is co-founder and general editor of the Scots language imprint Itchy Coo, which produces books in Scots for children and young adults.