num_pages: 400
description: What if you didn't believe in God, but then met the Devil? That is precisely the dilemma in the mysterious tale of Gideon Mack. A good man, and, ironically, a good minister despite his atheism, Mack leads a respectable and well-intentioned life in a small Scottish town. There he dutifully tends to his flock and even raises a small fortune for Christian charity running marathons. but the life he has constructed is shattered when Mack falls down a local ravine - known as the Black Jaws - and into the raging river below. Presumed drowned, he resurfaces three days later, bruised but alive. Even more unbelievable, Mack emerges from the waters claiming to have been rescued and cared for by the Devil in an underground cave.Suspended from the church, mocked by the tabloids and shunned as a madman, Gideon eventually disappears. The case is forgotten until a publisher received what appears to be Gideon's memoir of his experience with teh Devil and of the unusual life that precedes it.Himself the son of a minister, Mack grew up in a joyless household under his father's repressive thumb until a fateful clash over his watching an episode of Batman on the sabbath sets him free -- or so he thinks. Decades later while on a job in the woods, Mack's life is upended when he discovered a monolithic stone that he swears wasn't there the day before. Its mysterious - and possibly supernatural - appearance sets off the chain of events that leads to his fantastic encounter. Mixing realism and legend with a wealth of insight into faith, mortality and human behavior, The Testament of Gideon Mack is a mesmerizing and brilliantly imagined novel where perception must be questioned and truth lurks in the shadows.
language: English
title: The Testament of Gideon Mack
titlecomplete: The Testament of Gideon Mack
characters: Gideon Mack
genres: Magical Realism, Fantasy, Religion, Gothic, Novels, Scotland, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Fiction, Modern
ratings_count: 4636
places: Scotland
awards: awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Booker Prize
category: Longlist
publisher: Viking Adult