Historical fiction and preposterous legal arguments intertwine in Stephen Spotte's electric new novel Animal Wrongs, set in a medieval French courtroom where animals are put on trial for "crimes" against mankind. Sixteenth-century lawyers fill the air with bluster, heckled and cheered by spectators as they defend or prosecute accused animals facing penalties of being hanged or burned alive at the stake. Spotte deftly unveils a story of opposing...