The Gargoyle Hunters

A novel

Fiction & Literature, Coming of Age, Literary
Cover of the book The Gargoyle Hunters by John Freeman Gill, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: John Freeman Gill ISBN: 9781101946893
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Publication: March 21, 2017
Imprint: Vintage Language: English
Author: John Freeman Gill
ISBN: 9781101946893
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication: March 21, 2017
Imprint: Vintage
Language: English

Both his family and his city are crumbling when thirteen-year-old Griffin Watts stumbles headlong into his estranged father’s illicit architectural salvage business in 1970s Manhattan. Griffin clambers up the façades of tenements and skyscrapers to steal their nineteenth-century architectural sculptures—gargoyles and sea monsters, goddesses and kings. As his father sees it, these evocative creatures, crafted by immigrant artisans, are an endangered species in an age of sweeping urban renewal.

Desperate for money to help his artist mother keep their home, and yearning to connect with his father, Griffin fails to see that his father’s deepening obsession with preserving the treasures of Gilded Age New York endangers them all.

As he struggles to hold his family together and build a first love with his girlfriend on a sturdier foundation than his parents’ marriage, Griffin must learn to develop himself into the man he wants to become, and discern which parts of his life may be salvaged—and which parts must be let go.

Hilarious and poignant, this critically acclaimed debut is both a vivid love letter to a vanishing city and an intimate portrait of father and son. And it solves the mystery of a stunningly brazen architectural heist—the theft of an entire landmark building—that made the front page of The New York Times in 1974. With writing both tender and powerful, The Gargoyle Hunters brings a remarkable new voice to the canon of New York fiction.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Both his family and his city are crumbling when thirteen-year-old Griffin Watts stumbles headlong into his estranged father’s illicit architectural salvage business in 1970s Manhattan. Griffin clambers up the façades of tenements and skyscrapers to steal their nineteenth-century architectural sculptures—gargoyles and sea monsters, goddesses and kings. As his father sees it, these evocative creatures, crafted by immigrant artisans, are an endangered species in an age of sweeping urban renewal.

Desperate for money to help his artist mother keep their home, and yearning to connect with his father, Griffin fails to see that his father’s deepening obsession with preserving the treasures of Gilded Age New York endangers them all.

As he struggles to hold his family together and build a first love with his girlfriend on a sturdier foundation than his parents’ marriage, Griffin must learn to develop himself into the man he wants to become, and discern which parts of his life may be salvaged—and which parts must be let go.

Hilarious and poignant, this critically acclaimed debut is both a vivid love letter to a vanishing city and an intimate portrait of father and son. And it solves the mystery of a stunningly brazen architectural heist—the theft of an entire landmark building—that made the front page of The New York Times in 1974. With writing both tender and powerful, The Gargoyle Hunters brings a remarkable new voice to the canon of New York fiction.

More books from Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Cover of the book The Crowd Sounds Happy by John Freeman Gill
Cover of the book Men in Blazers Present Encyclopedia Blazertannica by John Freeman Gill
Cover of the book Dancing with the Enemy by John Freeman Gill
Cover of the book Time's a Thief by John Freeman Gill
Cover of the book Irresistible North by John Freeman Gill
Cover of the book The Girl in the Spider's Web by John Freeman Gill
Cover of the book Makers and Takers by John Freeman Gill
Cover of the book Amerika: The Missing Person by John Freeman Gill
Cover of the book The Letters of Martin Buber by John Freeman Gill
Cover of the book Victorine by John Freeman Gill
Cover of the book The Heartbreak of Aaron Burr by John Freeman Gill
Cover of the book Adam Haberberg by John Freeman Gill
Cover of the book The Trial of True Love by John Freeman Gill
Cover of the book The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window by John Freeman Gill
Cover of the book History of the Present by John Freeman Gill
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy