Another "Stay More" Book from University of Arkansas Novelist

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -In his most recent novel, University of Arkansas art professor Donald Harington creates a world from the perspective of a missing child, telling the sometimes harrowing, sometimes inspiring tale of the decade she spent growing up on a mountain with only animals and a spirit to keep her company.

"With," published this month by Toby Press, tells the story of seven-year-old Robin Kerr’s abduction by former policeman Sugrue (Sog) Alan. Sog takes Robin to his secluded hideout on Madewell Mountain and tries to make her his child-wife. After Robin manages to shoot Sog, she finds herself trapped on the mountain for the next 10 years.

Harington’s book follows Robin through her years on Madewell Mountain, where she befriends a menagerie of forest animals and the spirit of former resident Adam Madewell. Adam lived on the mountain before he and his family moved to California when he was 12. Since then, his 12-year-old spirit has haunted the old home as an "in-habit."

Harington has described "With" as "Robinson Crusoe meets Alice in Wonderland in The Green Mansions." His inspiration for Robin’s abduction comes from a widely publicized kidnapping case involving a little girl from Arkansas. Harington also has raised three daughters, an experience that provided him with his understanding of the female voice and psyche.

"I grew very fond of Robin as 'With’ unfolded," he said. "It was a pleasure to watch her personality form and develop, and I always hoped for the best for her. I think many female readers will greatly envy her experiences and adventures but receive much vicarious enjoyment from them."

Harington has written 11 other novels set in Stay More. This fictional Ozark hamlet is based on the small mountain village of Drakes Creek, where Harington spent many of his early summers with his grandparents.

In all of the Stay More books, Harington employs his own unique and imaginative techniques, such as telling the stories from the point of view of animals or ghosts. He also changes tenses from past to present to future, creating a sense that his stories never really end.

Harington’s first novel, "The Cherry Pit," was published by Random House in 1965 and is about an Arkansas native who returns home to Little Rock from Boston and finds himself hopelessly entangled with his past. Harington’s writing career continued with the Stay More books and other fiction and nonfiction books.

Last year Harington was awarded the Robert Penn Warren Award for Fiction by the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He also won the Porter Prize in 1987, the Heasley Prize at Lyon College in 1998 and the Arkansas Fiction Award of the Arkansas Library Association in 1999. He was inducted into the Arkansas Writers’ Hall of Fame the same year.

Despite his long list of accomplishments, Harington has been referred to as "America’s greatest unknown novelist." "With," however, has received some notable recognition, with starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews, and praises from Booklist and the Washington Post Book World Review Service.