"Margaret Nagel delivers a likable, funny and, above all, believable protagonist in this delightful story brimming with captivating characters... Thankfully, Brother Arcadius is only 20 at the end of the book's final tale which should leave time for many more adventures in what is sure to be a much-anticipated sequel." - BlueInk starred review

Not a children's book in spite of its readability and appearance, The Adventures of Brother Arcadius and Pangur Ban deals light handedly with the hardships and hazards of the 9th century AD.

Serious, dutiful, and naive Brother Arcadius, a young monk, sets out from his native Dublin to take up life at the remote Alpine monastery of Spiritus Sanctus. On the first stage of his long journey, the ocean crossing from Ireland to England, he rouses himself from sea sickness long enough to rescue a stow-away kitten from death at the hands of a wrathful sailor. He gives the kitten the Irish name of Pangur Ban and takes it with him to his destination, which turns out to be not quite your usual monastery - just as Pangur Ban is not quite your usual cat. Eleven interlinked tales recount the adventures of monk and cat over the next four years, and capture the wonderment of a time when, no matter where you lived, much of the rest of the world seemed strange and far away.

Readers may know, or may like to know, that sometime during the 9th century, a monk living in what is now Switzerland wrote a poem comparing his own love of scholarship to his cat's love of catching mice. He wrote the poem in Old Irish on a leaf of a manuscript that was otherwise in Latin and Greek. He gave the cat's name as "Pangur Ban," but remained anonymous himself. It is an engaging poem. In modern times, in various translations, it has appeared in many anthologies, and has been an inspiration for much commentary, an animated film, and several books, including The Adventures of Brother Arcadius and Pangur Ban.

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• Literature & FictionHistorical FictionMystery, Thriller & Suspense
• Teen & Young Adult

• Publication Date: February 2, 2016
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 356 Pages
• File Size: 26 KB