Craig McDonald – författare

Study and translation of the religious and philosophical work by this Scottish-born, France-based Renaissance humanist and educator.The Commentatio quaedam theologica of Florentius Volusenus (c.1504-c.1557) is a religious and philosophical work of the Renaissance, cast in the form of rhetorical aphorisms. Volusenus was an admirer of Erasmus, tutored the son of Cardinal Wolsey, and was close to the circles around Sir Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell. In Paris he received patronage from prominent humanist ecclesiastics, as also from bishop Jacopo Sadoleto at Carpentras. A colleague at Lyon of the poet Barthélemy Aneau, he taught Sebastian Castellio, who later broke with Calvin. Volusenus, an eirenic Catholic, favoured Church reform before the Reformation became irreversible.

The news is full of it: escalating tensions from illegal immigration; headless bodies hanging off bridges and bounties placed on lawmen on both sides of the border. New Austin, Ohio, is a town grappling with waves of undocumented workers who exert tremendous pressure on schools, police and city services. In the midst of the turmoil, three very different kinds of cops scramble to maintain control and impose order.But the rape-murder of a Mexican-American woman triggers a brutal chain of events that threatens to leave no survivors. El Gavilan is a novel of shifting alliances and whiplash switchbacks. Families are divided and careers and lives threatened. Friendships and ideals are tested and budding love affairs challenged. With its topical themes, shades-of-gray characters and dark canvas, El Gavilan is a novel for our charged times.